By
Kai Wright
From COLORLINES

The question isn’t whether Shirley Sherrod will get her job back at the Agriculture Department–or whether she should take it if offered, for that matter. The question is when are we going to stop paying attention to Andrew Breitbart? Better yet, at what point do the news outlets that gleefully report on the fake controversies he generates–thereby creating the stories they claim to be simply following–become equally responsible for his lies? If there is anything positive to say about the whole sorry Sherrod episode, it’s that perhaps we’re finally to that point.

David Gergen articulated it well on CNN’s “AC 360″ (of all places): “An ideologue injects poison into the internet, other people rush to judgment on camera, and an administration gets stampeded and commits this travesty of justice.” That about sums it up, but it’s hardly the first time this has happened. See under: ACORN, pimps and hos.

If you’ve somehow missed it, the story’s not complicated: Breitbart, who successfully promoted his network of websites through the fake gotcha sting on ACORN, posted on Monday a heavily edited video of Sherrod speaking at a Georgia NAACP event. Breitbart chopped the 40 minute speech down to a segment in which Sherrod admitted complicated emotions about helping white farmers. He deliberately omitted the bulk of the story, in which Sherrod discusses moving past those emotions and uses the incident to talk about healing old racial wounds. Fox News picked it up. The NAACP–frothed up in the heat of a silly debate about the Tea Party’s racism–freaked out and denounced Sherrod. The Agriculture Department freaked out and fired her. And we were off and running on the latest controversial race story.

Of course, after a bit of actual reporting, the Breitbart hit job has been unveiled as just that. The NAACP belatedly posted the entire video last night, and the Obama administration is now figuring out how to handle the PR debacle. No word yet on timing for the beer summit.

The incident certainly betrays, again, the White House’s remarkable timidity in the face of any rightwing attack, no matter how ludicrous. It also reveals, again, how eager everybody from political operatives to corporate news producers are to have simple-minded conversations about race. But, hey, since everybody is primed for talking about racism, let’s do that. Here are three race stories from the past three days that we could have obsessed over instead of Breitbart’s latest publicity stunt:

Race shapes the recession. It’s remarkable how little we hear about how much more intense of a recession black and Latino communities are enduring, even as Republican lawmakers have droned on for four months about unemployment insurance making people lazy. Perhaps that’ll lead Good Morning America tomorrow? Prolly not.

Poverty literally kills people–especially black people. The CDC reported on Monday that high-poverty neighborhoods in 23 U.S. cities have AIDS epidemics of similar intensity as those in developing world countries. Not coincidentally, black people are way overrepresented both in those poor neighborhoods and in the ranks of Americans getting infected with HIV. What coverage the CDC study got went out of its way to get the story wrong. One headline: New U.S. HIV Study Finds Poverty More Of A Factor In Infections Than Race.

Obama betrays women on reproductive health. The health care overhaul’s ban on rejecting patients for pre-existing conditions won’t kick in until 2014. So the feds are creating temporary high-risk pools to bridge the gap. But the Obama administration has decided to embrace Stupak-like language in the rules governing those pools. Guess who’s most likely to lose out? Women of color. You’ll search long and hard for mainstream news coverage of it. Good luck turning on the TV and not hearing about Sherrod’s personal ordeal.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Shirley Sherrod Offered Apology and Job (luckyrooster.net)
• Breitbart says it’s all a hoax (dailykos.com)
• Three Stories We Could Obsess Over Instead of Shirley Sherrod’s Ordeal (luckyrooster.net)

Living in the Past Threatens Man’s Future By: Tonyaa Weathersbee, BlackAmericaWeb.com

Many times, it’s the other way around. Many times, you’ll find a 15-year-old black boy, disillusioned by his struggles in school and drawn to the easy money of the streets, lying about being 16 or older rather than be forced to go back to a place where he didn’t fit in.

Guerdwich Montimere, however, apparently flipped the script here. According to news reports Montimere enrolled in junior high school in Odessa, Texas last year as 15-year-old Jerry Joseph .

There was just one problem, though. Montimere, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Haiti, was really 21. He continued to impersonate a teenager when he enrolled at Permian High School – and where he led his team to the state basketball playoffs. As Joseph, Montimere was heaped with praise and accolades, and all the perks that basketball stardom brings.

That is, until his former coaches at Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., recognized him as one of their star players – one who had graduated in 2007. Now, it seems that Montimere’s bizarre attempt to recreate the past may cost him his future. Recently, he was indicted on six felony counts ranging from identity theft to sexual assault; he allegedly had sex with a 15-year-old girl.

If convicted, he’ll face significant jail time. To be sure, there’s a lot we don’t know right now about what prompted Montimere to pretend to be a high school student when he was old enough to be in college. But it’s a safe bet that Montimere is probably not that much different from those young black men who officially drop out of high school as soon as they turn 16.

Many are seeking a place in society in which they aren’t marginalized or devalued, and many will resort to desperate means to find it. For many young black men, that place is on the streets; a place where they can make their own rules, and a place where they can command respect, money and recognition.

Their desire for such a place is so strong the risk of being imprisoned or killed becomes an afterthought. But school was Montimere’s proving ground – because it was there where he became a star in one of the most venerated sports in black America.

That means he enjoyed praise and status. Becoming a professional basketball player fills the dreams of scores of poor black youths, and Montimere probably got a taste of the validation that comes with that while he was playing high school ball in Fort Lauderdale.

Thing is, though, being a good high school player doesn’t guarantee a spot on a college team, and woefully few college basketball players ever get to the NBA.

Yet it doesn’t appear that Montimere, who apparently went as far as to pose as a homeless student to persuade Permian’s basketball coach to take him in, cared about all that. It seems that all he wanted to do was play ball – and recapture a past that was fulfilling and familiar. Montimere’s story is troubling.

Here’s a guy who, after graduating from high school, went through the trouble of moving to another state not to go to college, but to go back to high school. Here’s a young black man who, for whatever reason, believed that there was no other path to escaping invisibility than for him to commit a crime to remain a perpetual high school hoopster.

Montimere’s case, is, obviously, an extreme one. Then again, when you consider the scores of black youths who believe that the only worlds they are capable of ruling are those of sports and the streets, it’s not all that surprising that someone like him would look for a way to recreate a world in which he was king.

For Montimere, that world was basketball. And he was determined to remain there. Even if it meant becoming a felon to do so.

Dave Chappelle’s Strange Behavior on an Airplane: What’s Up Dave? from Black Voices Blogs by Boyce Watkins, PhD

What’s the deal with Dave Chappelle? According to TMZ, Chapelle was reportedly acting strange on a private jet, so much so that the jet had to make an emergency landing in Pittsburgh. Their source is stating that the flight was headed from New Jersey to Ohio and that Chappelle “freaked out” refusing to put on his seatbelt. The source also says that Chappelle repeatedly walked into the cockpit, asking the pilot how much longer the flight would be, and even grabbed the pilot’s arms.

That is when it was allegedly determined that Chappelle was a safety risk, and the flight was grounded. TMZ then claims that after landing, Chappelle checked into a hotel. However, sources at the hotel are claiming that Dave told the employees that he wanted to rent a car to go back to Ohio, but that he didn’t remember where he lived.

I’m not sure what the deal is with Dave Chappelle, one of the most talented and privileged comedians in America. He had the world at his feet, with a hit show and a $50 million contract to do what he does best. It does appear, however, that there is something inside Chappelle that simply can’t handle fame.

I’m not here to say that Dave Chappelle has a drug or alcohol problem, but some might wonder if that’s the case. Such peculiar behavior does nothing to give corporate America confidence that he is a reliable brand in which they should invest their money.

Corporations don’t like risk, and every celebrity who freaks out on a plane, uses the N-word on his girlfriend (Mel Gibson) or jumps up and down on Oprah’s couch (Tom Cruise) becomes a risk that most financial backers are not willing to take. Good luck Dave, I wish you the best.

Gullah/Geechee Culture Threatened as Residents Fight for Their Land By Ericka Blount Danois

An illuminating article in the New York Times outlines the injustice endured by the Neck Land Trust, a group of black landowners who lived in a thriving community, hunting and farming, before the federal government seized their land to build an airstrip in 1942.

The residents are Gullah/Geechee, descendants of West African slaves who became some of the nation’s earliest black landowners. Their distinctive culture, preserved for years by isolation on the coastal barrier islands, has been threatened by development to such a degree that in 2006, Congress designated a Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, stretching from North Carolina to Jacksonville, Fla.

Their story is about modernity vs. tradition, black vs. white and right vs. wrong. During World War II, when the federal government was looking for area for an Air Force base, the government condemned the land and ordered the families to clear out with the promise, some residents recall, that they could come back after the war.

The elders, many of whom are still aliveand remember barefoot childhoods spent climbing trees and waking to watch the Canada geese depart in formation – are asking Congress to return the land to them. At the time, they were given little time to move before their houses were burned.

Some had to live in barns to survive. The Fish and Wildlife Service maintains that the land is a crucial part of the national refuge system, implying that residents can’t successfully coexist with the wildlife on Harris Neck. Gullah/Geechee residents disagree.

“Wildlife was a part of us all of our lives,” said Kenneth R. Dunham Sr., 80, who was a child when the federal government gave Harris Neck families two weeks to leave before their houses were bulldozed and burned.

“In my back door, I could hear the wild geese coming. We left food in the field, so they would have something to eat.” Harris Neck was deeded by a plantation owner to a former slave in 1865. Black families who settled there built houses and boats and started crab and oyster factories.

The independent nature of the community was too much for the area’s whites, though. There’s no question about what the right thing would be for the government to do: give the land back to the landowners. It would continue to preserve the environment and culture of the Gullah people – one of America’s most distinct vestiges of pre-enslaved African culture.

This likely won’t happen without our support. If you support these residents, write or call your Congressman or call representatives in Georgia and let your voice be heard. Hairstyles from the 2010 Essence Music Festival Black Voices was live at the 2010 Essence Music Festvial in New Orleans — a celebration of black women, food, music, empowerment and creativity.

Of course, with over 200,000 women coming through the convention center during the three-day weekend, there were enough hairstyles to fill up a few hair magazines. Sisters were doing it up!