Now We Are Born Racist, WTF.

Adults have more difficulty recognizing faces that belong to people of another race, and this deficit appears to start early.

New research indicates that by the time they are 9 months old, babies are better ableto recognize faces and emotional expressions of people who belong to the group they interact with most, than they are those of people who belong to another race.

Babies don't start out this way; younger infants appear equally able to tell people apart, regardless of race.

"These results suggest that biases in face recognition and perception begin in preverbal infants, well before concepts about race are formed. It is important for us to understand the nature of these biases in order to reduce or eliminate [the biases]," said study researcher Lisa Scott, a psychologist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in a statement. [3-Year-Olds Fancy Own Ethnic Group]

In the study, 48 Caucasian infants were given the task of differentiating between faces of their own race and faces that belonged to another, unfamiliar, race. In another experiment, sensors placed on the babies' heads detected brain activity when the babies saw images of faces of Caucasian or African-American races expressing emotions that either matched or did not match sounds they heard, such as laughing and crying.

While 5-month-olds were equally able to distinguish faces from different races, 9-month-olds fared better with their own race. Likewise, brain-activity measurements showed the 9-month-olds processed emotional expressions among Caucasian faces differently than those of African-American faces, while the 5-month-olds did not.

Source http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/04/racist-babies-nine-month-olds-bias-faces_n_1477937.html?ir=Black%20Voices&ref=black-voices

First Lady Speaks The Truth That All Black Moms face.

First Lady Michelle Obama called Trayvon Martin’s death a ‘tragedy’ and said Americans should rally around the teen’s parents as they mourn.

In an interview with National Public Radio Tuesday, Mrs Obama said she hopes the February 19 shooting in Sanford, Florida, sparks a conversation about race and diversity that goes beyond the controversial case.
In her comments, she did not mention George Zimmerman, the 28-year-old neighborhood watch volunteer who is charged with murdering the unarmed 17-year-old.

‘All I can say is that my heart goes out to the parents, because we all as parents understand the tragedy of that kind of loss, and I think that’s really the thing that most people connect to,’ she said.


And it’s important for us not to lose sight of the fact that this is a family that’s grieving and there’s been a tremendous loss. And we all have to rally around that piece of it.’

Judge Recksiedler’s husband is the law partner of Mark NeJame, an attorney who provides legal analysis for CNN and was approached to represent Zimmerman.

Mrs Obama’s sympathetic words for Trayvon’s parents echo her husband’s remarks about the shooting last month.
‘My main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin. You know, if I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon,’ President Barack Obama said.

His message, in which he also called the shooting a ‘tragedy,’ sparked controversy, with Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich calling it ‘disgraceful race-baiting.’

The shooting at a gated community, while Trayvon was returning to his father’s girlfriend’s home with Skittles and iced tea, has sparked protests across the country.

Many see the case as a racial issue. Trayvon was black and Zimmerman, who claimed self-defense and was not arrested until a special prosecutor investigated the case, is half-Hispanic and half-white.

Mrs Obama said she believes the country can learn from the shooting and should continue discussing the controversial issues.

‘It’s all about, you know, continuing to get to know ourselves in a very diverse and complicated country that is America,’ she told NPR.

‘But because it is so diverse, our challenges are complex. So there isn’t, you know, a one-shot solution to this.’

Source http://blacklikemoi.com/2012/04/black-children-2/michelle-obama-says-trayvon-martins-death-a-tragedy-and-americans-should-rally-around-his-parents/

Racism Is Worldwide, Have A Piece Of The Cake.

According to an article in Fria Tider (a Swedish publication), the minister of culture was celebrating with a “n–ger cake.” To add insult to injury, Liljeroth was invited to open festivities of World Art Day by — brace yourself — “performing a clitoridectomy on the cake” to bring awareness to the global practice of female circumcision.

If you think this story can’t get any more perverse, there is a video and photos of Liljeroth slicing the genital area of the cake and eating it. Did I mention that the body screams each time someone slices the cake?


Other than the obviously perverse and hateful nature of this heinous incident masquerading as performance art, Liljeroth isn’t your stereotypical racist. Prior to this incident, the politician had publicly taken a hard-line approach against racism, even changing Sweden’s press-subsidy laws in order to block tax funding of a nationalist newspaper. Liljeroth has been viewed as a friend in the fight against racism in a country known for being sensitive to such issues.

What is evident here is that what people think and what they do are two different things, particularly when it comes to race and gender.

When I saw the photo, I initially thought of Sarah “Saartjie” Baartman, commonly referred to as the Hottentot Venus. Baartman was an enslaved South African woman who was literally put on display as entertainment throughout Europe because of what the medical and scientific establishment regarded as her exceptional bodily form: protruding buttocks and an elongated labia.

Baartman was “exhibited” in London even after the abolition of the slave trade in 1807 and eventually sold to a Frenchman. In France she was exhibited under even more demeaning conditions, some at the hands of an animal trainer. She was the subject of several scientific paintings. Baartman died in 1815, and her preserved genitals and brain were on display at the Musée de l’Homme in Paris until 1997, when her remains were repatriated to South Africa at the request of President Nelson Mandela.

Liljeroth’s participation in the current heinous act demonstrates just how far we haven’t come as it relates to the treatment of black women’s bodies. The kind of pain, suffering and humiliation endured by Baartman — who was literally property from which economic institutions like slavery, and cultural institutions like museums, benefited during and after her lifetime — is met with little regard or sensitivity by those who would call themselves “anti-racist.” If Liljeroth is anti-racist, then Houston, we have a problem. This wanton act and her willing participation in it speaks to the perversion of power as it relates to race, gender and sexuality.

Source http://blacklikemoi.com/2012/04/black-news-2/swedish-n-cake/

White Woman Drives Across Highway To Hit A Black Teen Head On.

A collision between a Jeep and a go-cart in Pearland, Texas has sparked a race debate that’s initiated a flood of phone calls and e-mails from across the country.

But while people on the outside are debating race, those close to what happened are shutting down that argument. Still, they have a problem with what’s occurred and a bigger problem that the woman hasn’t been arrested.

“Race is not an issue, what is an issue is right and wrong,” said the victim’s father Jules Moor. Moor has filed a lawsuit against the woman who investigators say drove her Jeep Wrangler into his 13-year-old son’s go-cart on March 13, 2012, as he was riding in the 2600 block of Lakecrest Drive, where he lives.

His son was rushed to the hospital with head and neck injuries. “I don’t think, I know for a fact that she intentionally did it,” said Moor. “She left from the northbound lane, crossed over into the southbound lane, jumped the curb and hit my son head on in his go-cart.”

The Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office did not arrest the woman at the scene or charge her with a crime. Instead, investigators chose to take it to a grand jury. Moor is frustrated and wants charges filed against the woman, who lives around the corner from him. “I want justice to happen. I want a felony charge to be taken against this woman,” Moor said.

Read More http://blacklikemoi.com/2012/04/black-news-2/you-dont-belong-here-suspected-racist-crashes-into-black-teens-on-purpose-video/

The True Life Of Black American Youth

For a long time I believed that roaches, violence, and chaos were part of everyone’s childhood memories. In my neighborhood, Brownsville, Brooklyn, poor blacks and Latinos live isolated from wealthier minorities and other races. I’ve often been afraid to walk down my block alone for fear of being attacked.

As I got older, I realized that other people weren’t living in fear like I was. I began to feel like a statistic -- a black girl who lived in a place where mothers dote on drug-dealing sons and ignore the gun hidden under dirty laundry in the closet. I wondered if I had less of a chance to achieve the American dream because I had had less of a childhood. I wondered whether my race and the poverty I grew up in would hold me back from success and happiness. I had guidance counselors and teachers who sang the same old song about reaching for the stars and being determined, and I bought it enough to get good grades and plan to go to college. But those dreams were starting to sound like fairy tales.

Read More http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/10/race-and-class_n_1268956.html?ir=Education

Newt Gingrich Is Using Race In Order To Win Votes, The New George Wallace..

Newt Gingrich, facing a double-digit loss to rival Mitt Romney that some predict will doom his presidential bid, sought to turn the results of Tuesday's critical Florida primary into a victory, arguing that the contest is now defined as between himself and the former Massachusetts governor.

"Florida did something very important coming on top of South Carolina. It is now clear this will be a two-person race between the conservative leader Newt Gingrich and the Massachusetts moderate," Gingrich told a few hundred people in a half-empty ballroom here. "The voters of Florida really made that clear."

Gingrich's campaign has seen wild gyrations -- the former House speaker was deeply in debt and nearly his entire staff quit over the summer, but he surged to become a front-runner in Iowa in December before being pummeled by millions of dollars in attack ads there by Romney and his supporters. He badly lost Iowa and New Hampshire before picking up a come-from-behind victory in South Carolina, giving him momentum coming into Florida. But another barrage of attack ads and two lackluster debate performances eroded support for Gingrich here in recent days.

   

Read More http://www.boston.com/news/politics/articles/2012/01/31/gingrich_says_gop_race_will_go_on_another_6_months/

Boy Stabbed Over His Race

When one student stabbed 12-year-old Ryan Rodriguez in the back with a pencil and walked away, Ryan didn't have to ask for a reason why. He already knew: his race, the Connecticut Post reports. The boy's mother, Gail Rodriguez, told the paper that her son, who is half white and half Puerto Rican, was often bullied for not being "black enough," and that other students teased him, calling him things like "stupid white cracker."


The bullying at the Engineering and Science University Magnet School in New Haven, Conn., was more than physical assault. The Post reports that students would also steal Ryan's belongings and break his binders.

When his mother complained, however, teachers allegedly said they would have to catch the students in the act in order to take punitive action.

Read More http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/31/boy-stabbed-because-he-allegedly-wasnt-black-enough_n_1244870.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003