racism

Rapper Nas attacks Fox News for "racist propaganda"

Sophie Team Observers — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:07:58 +0200

Fox News has been slammed as a "racist propaganda machine" by rapper Nas, who's written an entire song about the channel. He yesterday tried to deliver 620,000 signatures to Fox owners News Corp from webusers who believe the network to be anti-black and unfair to Obama. But the petition was refused.

A string of offensive comments and "slips of the tongue" have landed Fox in trouble since the US presidential campaign kicked off. Last month they called Obama's wife a "baby-mama", and before that had labelled the couple's affectionate fist bump as a "terrorist fist jab". Obama was once "accidentally" called Osama and is regularly called by his full name - Barack Hussein Obama".

Although the Rupert Murdoch owned channel apologised for many of these occasions, an online petition against its "racist and hate-filled smears" managed to attract 620,137 signatures. Organised by activist groups MoveOn.org and ColorofChange.org, Nas went to the New York headquarters on Wednesday to deliver the 20 crates of signed papers, but was refused. He made a speech in front of the building saying that the network "poisons the country with racist propaganda and tries to call it news." They responded that "Fox News believes in all protesters exercising their right to free speech including Nas who has an album to promote".

The first song on the album is about Fox. "Watch what you watchin', Fox keeps feeding us toxins ... I pledge allegiance to the fair and balanced truth, not the biased truth, not the liar's truth," he says.

Attacked for singing the "black national anthem"

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:11:00 +0200

A relatively unknown jazz singer has caused outrage in the US after unexpectedly singing the "Black National Anthem" in place of the Star-Spangled Banner at a council event in Denver.

René Marie was invited to the city council's State of the City address on Tuesday where she was expected to sing America's traditional national anthem. However, although she sang to the right tune, the lyrics were those of writer James Weldon Johnson's hymn "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" - also known as "The Black National Anthem". The singer, who only told a few close friends about her plans, received mild applause. The council president Michael Hancock, who hosted the event and knew nothing about the alteration, received a barrage of insulting letters. The city's mayor, Michael Hickenlooper, said that the act showed a "lack of understanding" and that it overshadowed his speech. But Marie refuses to apologise, saying that she expressed herself artistically and would do the same thing again. As the controversy entered its third day, Barack Obama said yesterday that there "is only one national anthem" and she should have sung that one.

The rantings of an angry white farmer

Sophie Team Observers — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:39:39 +0200

Ben Freeth after the attack. Image from Justice for Agriculture (JAG).

While Mugabe's thugs continue to terrorise Zimbabwe, the abduction and brutal beating of a white farmer has reignited another of the country's long-standing polemics - what to do with the country's wealthy white settlers.

After talking to the press about conditions in the run-up to the election, Ben Freeth, along with his elderly parents-in-law, was kidnapped from his farm in south-east Harare by around 20 militias on Sunday evening (29 June). The three were then taken to a "political camp" where they were beaten and intimidated by around 50 of Mugabe's clan, Freeth said. He is currently undergoing surgery for head injuries.

Attacks on white farmers in Zimbabwe have been commonplace since Mugabe's instruction to redistribute land in 2000. But during the recent wave of violence that swept the country in the run up to the run-off last Friday, a growing number of settlers have been targeted.

Is it racist?

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:11:51 +0200

A Japanese advert that portrays Barack Obama as a monkey has outraged Web users. But is it really racist? Maybe not in Japan...

UPDATE (30 June 2008 3pm): Chairman of the telecoms company, Sachio Semmoto, has informed Reuters that E-Mobile has now withdrawn the advertisement on TV, although he denied accusations of racism; saying that the macaque had already been used in several other of their campaigns. He said that he recognised sensitivities with the African-American/ Japanese relationship. He also said that Obama's candidacy is an opportunity for the US and that such a candidate could be beneficial for Japan.

NEW UPDATE (9 July 2008 10.30am): One of our readers has informed us that although the television adverts have been pulled, the campaign is still being circulated in print form. We have verified this with news sources.

Like the good old apartheid times

Julien — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:21:59 +0100

Forced to eat meat mixed with garlic and urine, cleaners at a South African university are going through their "initiation" process. Participating in beer-downing competitions, races and mock rugby games, if the black workers are sufficiently entertaining, they go away at the end of the day with a bottle of whisky.

This is what happened at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein in central South Africa last September, when five elderly black cleaners were filmed completing the humiliating tasks. On Tuesday (26. Feb) the video of the events surfaced on the internet, causing outrage across the country. Now, the four victimisers are facing criminal charges, and mass protests are taking the country by storm.