Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
Per the Huffington Post:
*Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Friday that he was “absolutely shocked” to hear Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia describe a key piece of the Voting Rights Act, one of the most significant achievements of the civil rights movement, as a “perpetuation of racial entitlement” earlier this week.
“I’m not easily surprised by anything, but that took me to a place I haven’t been in a long time,” Clyburn said of Scalia’s comments, during an interview with HuffPost. “What Justice Scalia said, to me, was, ‘The 15th Amendment of the Constitution ain’t got no concerns for me because I’m white and proud.’”
Now the third most powerful Democrat in the House of Representatives, Clyburn’s work on civil rights issues goes as far back as the age of 12, when he was elected president of his local NAACP youth chapter. He organized civil rights demonstrations in college, and even met his wife in jail after a protest.
Growing up in South Carolina, Clyburn said he “grew almost immune” to the racist comments being made around him. He said he will never forget hearing the late Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) defending his opposition to the 1957 Civil Rights Act by saying, in Clyburn’s paraphrased words, “Our negroes are pleased with their plight.”
Rep. James Clyburn
Even though it’s been more than 55 years since Thurmond’s remarks, Clyburn said the same sentiment can be felt in comments like those made by Scalia. He pointed to a wave of state voting laws that made it harder to vote in the last election cycle as proof of the “obvious” need for the Voting Right Act to stay intact.
“When you have in 2012 … states making changes to their laws that you can look on their face and see that these changes will make it harder for minorities to have their votes affect the results that they intend, you say that we don’t need [the Voting Rights Act] anymore? Is this some kind of entitlement?” Clyburn asked. “Well, the Constitution of the U.S. is an entitlement for everybody.”
The bottom line, said Clyburn, is that the 1965 civil rights law has “had a positive impact on the voting rights of people traditionally denied the right to vote. To ignore that, to me, is beyond the pale. It means you went to the bench with an agenda.”
He added, “Playing around with the Voting Rights Act is playing with fire.”
its really sad how they are trying to keep us from voting rights. what is going on in this country
we haven’t even been voting that long. I cannot believe that they can actually consider something as voting. why? are they doing this. is it because we have a black president or is it because they know they can do this to us, no matter what. they been messing with us for decades.
Woooooooooow! (Said like Mos Def!) I guess nowadays…if you’re not “Black”?, then you’re White?, ok got it! For this NON White muthafkah to be “soooooo” conditioned & twisted to say & feel this stupid ass shyt is just…..”extra dumbass”!!! Hey FK’em & all the rest! Just two moe election cycles & we won’t even seeeeeeeeee these pink assholes!! Good day!
We always ask why? this and why? that…why? they treating us so bad. Joey, I’m not dissin’ you but the community (we have left) has got to wake up and open our eyes to the fact that we’ve been enslaved from the day we got on the ships to come here. I know people want to leave slavery alone – forget about it – think this is some sort of post-racial society. I get it. Each one of us harbors a deep-down hurt and pain passed through the blood of each generation. It is not your fault, you are not to blame, you are more Powerful and Worthy than you know.
I didn’t get on here to give a slavery speech it was supposed to be a comment but we’ve got to realize one thing, well, several things but at least this one, and that is WE DO NOT RESPECT OURSELVES. Common sense tells anyone/everyone that respect must start with Self-Respect.
How do we dis-Respect ourselves? First, look at the comments on this one web site – how we treat each other with little-to-no respect only because we have different opinions or the person(s) in the article did something or “look” like something we don’t like – and multiply that by thousands. That is negative energy multiplying-by-the-moment and it keeps away positive energy. Again, common sense tells us we want more positive energy in our lives than negative energy because energy eventually materializes into something and just look at the majority of material in the Black community – it is negative.
Men, generally speaking, look at us and how we dis-Respect our women (mothers, sisters, aunts, wives, friends). We must STOP the abuse – physical, mental and emotional – and focus more on lifting our women up NOT putting them down. I know that goes back to the pain I mentioned before but we can’t make excuses and think it’ll be ok because it won’t. We dis-Respect ourselves with this “saggin” foolishness which is a by-product of being locked-up in the prison system. Is being in jail cool? C’mon, man. We dis-Respect ourselves, families and our ancestors with all this “n*gga this and n*gga that” and loud profanity all out in public – step-up your vocabulary and your game, that BS is played out…being a gentleman is the smoothest, coolest “swag” a man can have. We dis-Respect ourselves by not educating ourselves…instead of watching all this tv, playing all these games, smoking herb/cigarettes (so much), drinking alcohol (so much), dancing around looking silly, ignoring our children and mis-guiding them – all the things we do to escape (the pain). Why? not escape into some factual information or a book. Here are but a few authors to begin with: Carter G. Woodson, Amos Wilson, John Henrik Clarke, Anthony Browder, John G. Jackson, Frances Cress Welsing – there are so many sources of self-education, we don’t have to go to college to be intelligent. Think on that for a while. Let’s not forget the Internet…you can enlighten yourself from your own home or wherever the Internet is accessible but the point is, YOU have control over it and control over YOU as a sovereign human being but YOU have to be Awake/Aware (the term is Consciousness)…YOU must know what is taking place in your space and surrounding spaces. If YOU don’t then YOU are a slave. And for the record, Humanity is enslaved (not just us).
Women, generally speaking, look at how you dis-Respect yourselves (and in various cases, men, too – it’s deep, I’m just keeping it basic right now)…I’m talking about the way you carry yourselves in public (and on YouTube), showing your bodies (your temples and adornments) any ‘ol kinda way…remember, our children pattern (copy) this behavior. I know the man/woman relationship is totally at odds – men and women are doing a lot of messed-up things to each other (knowingly and not knowing it may be something else within – that goes deeper, too) BUT if we Educated Ourselves, We would know why?…and the main reason is because it’s another part of the racist system that “purposely” doesn’t want us to be together. Each human by design has the masculine and feminine essence within, it’s just that a woman is made-up mostly of the feminine essence and the man, mostly the masculine essence. What I’m getting at is that we are NOT the “opposite sex” we ARE “Complementary Sexes” and we are Naturally designed to be together not always going against each other – that’s negativity and we already know what negativity brings us. Sadly, we don’t look into things, research, nearly enough…we depend on others to do it for us – tell us the truth (yeah, right) – or even worse, we don’t give a damn.
There’s so much more to say but I’ve already said too much for one comment – please excuse me. But to wrap it up, there’s a thing, a concept, an energy inside of the human by design – whether you’re Black, brown, red, yellow or white – that is powerful beyond imagination and if used, and used more and more, it will change our condition literally overnight because it will change the way We think (Energy) as a community (and Humanity) and instead of doing all of these things that hurt us, we will start doing the things that help us and make us feel GOoD and surprisingly we’ll find this power within ourselves we never knew was there. What is this thing? This thing is Love. Now, more than ever, We do better to Love. This is something we don’t need anybody else to help us do because again, by design, We have the power to do it ourselves. This is one thing We All can do and nobody or nothing can stop us. Just think, all we need to do is Be about Love.
That was one of the best comments I’ve read on any urban website. We truly have become so distracted by drama and negative energy that we don’t even recognize it in ourselves. Wow, I so glad you put it out there, hopefully people will read the whole post and take heed.
Yo…..EVERYthing you posted is the truth!!!! But you know what gets me sometimes?, it’s when We merge two different subjects, due to…”one”!, that has NUTHing to do with “Us”. YES!!!, by ALL meeeeeeans We as a people should elevate ourselves, HAYIL ALL people should do so! But….YT fkn over Us?, ain’t got shyt to do with how “We” carry ourselves!!! Looooooong b4 there was hiphop/sangin & when we WERE walkin/talkin right?, YT was STILL lynching, killing, raping & disrespecting Us!! So…..let’s handle one subject at a time, & not subconsciously blame “Us” for what THEY do, feel meh? (& I think that you can!)
!
Thank you sister, I’m glad it resonated with you. Taurusingr, I feel ya. Before I can really respond, clarify something for me: You said, “‘one’!, that has NUTHing to do with ‘Us’”….what is it that has “NUTHing” to do with us? I’m not trying to be funny but sometimes I can be slow, so to speak.
I will say this, tho…I did not subconsciously blame “Us” for what “they” do…as a matter of fact, when I commented on slavery, I said we were “not” to blame. The only thing I called us on is WHAT WE DO…nobody forces us to act that way. However, something can [force us to act that way] if we don’t even realize it exists. There is a deep rooted-globally connected system that functions in ways that are layered, unseen behind closed doors and hidden in plain sight which creates, triggers and maintains the self-defeating symptoms of the cancer of racism/white supremacy.
I’ll leave it there until you let me know what you meant.
Reeeeally sorry dude! Didn’t see your response til…now! Naaaw mayn, I was saying that “how they think of & treat Us, has NUTHin to do “with Us”! It’s their OWN insecurity/inferiority,jealousy,ENvy, that makes them hate ANYone who isn’t White. But “we” are THE most hated, b/c they knooooo “We” are the strongest, most intelligent, talented AND “1st ” people on this planet! But again…a lot of times?, We start/go in ‘on “Us” as if if We were better as a people, they “wouldn’t STILL hate Us” like they do, thus…”my post”..”We have NUTHin to do with why they do WHAT they do”. You diiiiiiig!? Now….We should DEFINITELY elevate ourselves, that’s a straight UP fact! But…merging the two issues?, seems to let them off the hook/blame “Us”, & “i’m” reeeeally not feelin “that” shyt, feel meh, Hollah back!
very well said nomo
Yes nomo, very well written and very well said. and I’m a sistah born and raised in detroit Michigan and Have always had a deep respect. for my city and where I was born. My family where Detroit officers, and I have a cousin who is a judge ,, I was very proud to be apart of this family. and I’m well aware of How we do disrespect ourselves. When I was reading this, I was getting emotional can you believe that. yes I understand and I hear ya. and believe me I have been thinking a lot about what you have written. thanks GOD bless you have a great day!
tjg and joey (thanks for clarifying you’re my sister), I’m glad it resonated with you both…Peace-Love-Blessings to All of you. Oh yeah, NoMo is rahmi…I’m not sure why it switched-up like that, it’s probably on me, I’ll check it out. I’m waiting to hear back from Taurusingr, maybe there’s more we can learn/share, we’ll see..