NAIL MEET HEAD: John McWhorter

McWhorter: What Should African-American Studies Students Learn?

Urban history? Blacks were penned into segregated districts and then factory jobs available to modestly educated men were moved to China. Politics? Radicalism has been most interesting, whether or not it was the source of most black success. Performance? Most resonant in how it Spoke Truth to Power.

Is that all we are? Is that all we have been? Is it irrelevant to cover how black people have triumphed against the obstacles? Especially since so many have trumphed that today there are more middle class black people than poor ones? Is the main relevance of the fact that we have a black President--ahem!!!!--that his election didn’t mean, as if anyone thought it did, that there did not remain some racist idiots here and there?

It’s time that African-American Studies departments let go of the sixties imperative to defend blacks as eternal victims of racism. Black people can do their best even under imperfect conditions--and if that reality is irrelevant to an African-American Studies curriculum, then we must question the value of said curricula to those whom they purport to speak up for: real people in this real world. This real world which will never be perfect--even for descendants of African slaves.

In 2009, the study of blackness must be the study of a race most of whose members are now victors, not victims. Certainly the victims must be studied--but only within a genuine commitment to saving them, not chronicling them as helpless until America turns upside down in a fashion no one could seriously imagine will ever happen.

Read it all here. (H/T: AtillaTheHoney)

Moonbat actor-turned-radio jock takes her best guess at what motivates "Teabaggers".

Via Breitbart. Watch if you can stand it. I don't doubt that some racists attend tea parties. Some racists attend protests on the left as well. What I object to is the hyperbolic, broad-brushing attempt to de-legitimize and smear the free expression of the sort of grassroots political dissent the tea parties represent. I would be very surprised if she considered most leftists anti-Semites because there is no doubt a representation of them at any given anti-war rally. Then there's this guy, who tosses a "teleprompter" crack in Obama's direction. What do you suppose the left would call him? (Please don't answer that. The question is strictly rhetorical.)

And as always, if you think I'm wrong - hammer away at me. I can take it.

Exit question: Why are all those "white supremacists" cheering? Can't they see the man is black? Hellooooo?

Worst President To Date Blames Opposition To Successor On Racism

Making stuff up is fun!

The meme is set, and the bunny-slapping ex-president is not to be denied an opportunity to do his part:

In an interview with NBC's Brian Williams, former Democratic President Jimmy Carter attributed much of the conservative opposition that President Obama is receiving to the issue of race.

Read the whole thing and watch the video, if you can stand it.

UPDATE: Jammie takes a walk down memory lane - Carter called Obama a 'black boy'

UPDATE: Ben Smith at Politico - Steele responds.

Finally, Rush makes a good point, via a caller, I believe: Was it 'racist' when the right opposed HillaryCare?