Not so "Fresh Air".

Damn it! My birds just caught a beat down in Chi town. Lovie had his boys ready to play.
We are still tied for first so Iwon't trip.

So anyway, some folks are calling out NPR's Terry Gross and drawing Juan Williams comparisons after her recent Jay Z interview. I will give you a cut and paste job as an example:

"Let’s begin with the premise that no people, culture, religious, racial or ethnic group is by definition immoral. Not acknowledging this, at the core, is the problem with Juan Williams’ gross generalization about Muslims that recently got him fired from National Public Radio (NPR). But if NPR’s “Fresh Air” interview last week with the rapper Jay-Z about his new book Decoded is any indication, it’s a message still lost on Terry Gross.

To be sure, Juan Williams revealed his bias by openly expressing his personal opinion. Terry Gross didn’t do that. Instead the bias is more subtle and insidious and lurks in the line of questioning.

While not as shocking as the obvious blanket condemnation Juan Williams advanced, the Terry Gross/ Jay-Z interview is even more problematic because it illuminates a tendency pervasive in today’s news media. This is a moment in which Blacks can be embraced and promoted at the same time that their humanity is dismantled—all in a 30-second sound bite.

Throughout her interview with Jay-Z, Gross kept returning the discussion to those places that reinforce the idea of Black culture as immoral and Black people as corrupt and/or corruptible. Such anti-Black arguments that once lived primarily in conservative public policy debates have now worked their way into national culture (especially in film, television, news media and politics) to the degree that these views are now widely accepted as the norm.

In short, racial disparities in education, unemployment, criminal justice, wealth-building, and more are rooted in Black cultural failing alone. As this logic prevails, it’s impossible to gain traction on any targeted policy solutions regarding the problems disproportionately facing Blacks.

President Obama realizes this. Hence his colorblind politics, a policy approach that anti-racist activist Tim Wise documents in detail in his new book, Colorblind. However, one wonders to what extent even liberal journalists like Terry Gross realize they are collaborators.

To grasp the full extent to which Gross emboldens conservative ideas about race, one should listen to the entire 45-minute interview. For now, let this brief exchange illustrate the point,

GROSS: Your father left when you were very young. And you say that most of your friends’ fathers had left. You say, “Our fathers were gone, usually because they just bounced. But we took their old records and used them to build something fresh.” That’s really interesting that one of your things that your father leaves behind that you can use is his records.

JAY-Z: Yeah, I guess there’s a bright side to everything right?

GROSS: Yeah, well, that’s one way of looking at it.

Any great interviewer—and Gross is at the top of her game—knows the role he or she plays in the outcome. Part of the science is in framing the questions.

The advancing of conservative rhetoric about Blacks persists, whether Gross is bluntly asking Jay about crimes he committed 15 years ago (crack sales and assault), or inquiring about his mother’s parental decisions: “You ended up selling crack and helping your mother, as a single mother, support the family. Did she know that’s how you were making the money?”

What’s the takeaway message? That Jay’s mom was a single parent that made poor choices, let her teenage son sell drugs and is unprincipled because she knows the money he’s using to support the family comes from drug sales. It’s a narrative we’ve heard from the Republican Revolution of 1994 to the recent well-financed media blitz that resulted in the mid-term shellacking of the Democrats.

And Terry Gross never goes off message. In a nearly hour long interview with a self-made record executive mogul and entrepreneur worth at least half a billion, on the occasion of the publication of a book he deems a coming of age story for his generation, the most pressing questions on the table range from insight into drug dealing to why rappers grab their crotches? "[More]

In a way, I understand what my friend Bakari is saying. But isn't Jay Z the wrong subject to use to make this point? Jay Z is a rapper who made his bones glorifying his street cred from his "hard knock" beginnings. Terry Gross couldn't totally ignore who the rapper is. Still, I found myself agreeing with the author' general point about liberals and about A-merry-can journalist in general.

Terry Gross doesn't get a pass, because I know where she is coming from, and believe me, it isn't a good place.

Sorry Juan, you will have to "fight the power" without us.

Someone asked me earlier: "Field, why is it that black folks like you turned on Juan Williams, when damn near everyone else in A-merry-ca, including Michael Moore, thinks that he was wronged?"

I will write for you what I told my curious friend: Juan Williams, is a disappointment to most black folks. He represents the type of wishy washy Negro in A-merry-ca who makes it hard to convey our pain and frustration to those who need to know. In his high profile media position, he might as well be just another white host pontificating about the politics of the day. Which is fine, if he is just another political pundit on television who just happens to be black. With Juan you always get the impression-at least when he is on FOX-that he is the token black guy, and he is playing the role of the Negro "contrarian".

Unfortunately for us black folks, Juan never seemed to play that role very well. He never expressed what we were really thinking. Which, I suspect, is just the way FOX wanted it. (The fake black man on a fake news station) I bet that all those lily white families watching in red state A-merry-ca clung to Juan's every word as if it was black gospel. Juan is black A-merry-ca. Not. So when Juan said that he gets nervous when he sees people in Muslim garb we (black folks) immediately felt outrage and thought: this is bulls&^%! In urban areas across A-merry-ca we see and interact with folks in Muslim garb damn near every day, -And yes, I know, they aren't all necessarily Middle Eastern men- and they sure don't make us nervous.

I have said this before, but it's worth repeating: They don't make Juan nervous,either. He was just saying what he thought that the lily white family in Iowa wanted to hear. That is why black folks aren't crying a river over Juan's firing. Yes, we know that it was wrong the way NPR handled it. We know that the PC police overreached, but, believe me, it's not worth our outrage.
Juan has plenty of white folks (from the left and the right) who will get his back. We will sit this one out. (BTW, for a great analysis of what went on behind the scenes at NPR and why Juan 's black ass should have been fired a long time ago, read this excellent article from my friend, Farai Chideya.)

Calling Michael Steele! Calling Michael Steele!

"Jerry Alexander, campaign manager for Marvin Scott, who is challenging Rep. Andre Carson (D), said the Scott campaign has received virtually no help from state or national GOP leaders.
'If you call getting no support, not even a phone call, not even a how are you doing kind of support, then I would have to say that is a pretty accurate assessment,' Alexander said.

Alexander said that he has talked with the other 14 African-American Republican candidates’ campaigns, and each has similar complaints.

'It’s been a bunch of guys grumbling that they are getting no support,' Alexander said of a slew of e-mails that were sent back and forth this week.

Alexander, who served as Rep. Mike Pence’s political director for nearly seven years, said his former boss is the only Republican who has helped the Scott operation. Pence, who represents Indiana’s 6th district, is the GOP Conference chairman, the No. 3 Republican leader. "

Oh my! And just when I thought that I was going to give those republican folks a serious look....

Saint Juan!

OK, enough of this already! Juan, we all agree; maybe NPR should not have fired you. Censoring someones speech is never cool. But Juan, you have got to stop the woe is me pity party that you keep throwing over there at Radio Rwanda. We get it! You are their token Negro, and they love you. (How much head patting can one Negro take?) But it's getting a bit pathetic now.

BTW, I know folks call me a racism chaser, but are there any bigger racism chasers in A-merry-ca than the Radio Rwanda folks? Now they are throwing the race card into your firing? Come on, Juan, for the sake of all that is decent; please make them stop!

"..It's a howling double standard. The standard being applied to Juan Williams is manifestly not being applied to other NPR people. And I think it is simply this, that in the culture of NPR, appearing on Fox is a sin. And in the culture of NPR, for an African American man like Juan, regardless of his extraordinary stature, to be there and be kind of a Bill Cosby liberal, not a down-the-line liberal, is a sin as well. They have been gunning for him for years. These remarks about Muslim garb at airports was merely a pretext. They have been wanting to get him, and got him, and in so doing exposed themselves for who they are..."

Huh? WTF is a "Bill Cosby Liberal"? Leave it to these clowns at Radio Rwanda to take this to a whole other level. See what you are causing, Juan? Although, hey, maybe you love being the new martyr of the right. A regular Catherine Of Alexander. You are the new wingnut saint of victim- hood. And if it's one thing we know that wingnuts love to do is play the victim role. They are victim experts.

Finally, I can't let a post go without taking one more shot at my man, Uncle C.

"He was always actively watching the women he worked with to see if they could be potential partners," McEwen told the Post, adding that he was particularly "partial to women with large breasts" and even would ask woman about their bra size.

"He was obsessed with porn," McEwen also said of Thomas, a claim that is particularly relevant to Hill's allegations that the then-chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had repeatedly relayed scenes from pornographic movies to her. "He would talk about what he had seen in magazines and films, if there was something worth noting," McEwen continued.

As for why McEwen has decided to break her silence now, the Post explains that the woman who partook in Thomas's "freewheeling sex life" between 1981 and 1986 has a story to tell.

She has written a memoir, which she is now shopping to publishers. News broke that the justice's wife, Virginia Thomas, left a voice mail on Hill's office phone at Brandeis University, seeking an apology -- a request that Hill declined in a statement. After that, McEwen changed her mind and decided to talk about her relationship with Thomas."

Maybe Virginia should be calling Ms. McEwen and not Ms. Hill. Sounds like she is going to be doing more damage to Uncle C's legacy. *shaking head*

Still, you know what's shameful about all of this? That Uncle C's proclivity to get his freak on is clouding a more serious and potentially scandalous issue: The fact that his wife is a right wing activist who raises millions of dollars to support causes that are connected to cases that her husband, the supreme court justice, has to hear. That is the shame of all of this. But here in A-merry-ca we don't care, because we have gotten used to such sleaziness. And no, I am not talking about Uncle C's breast fetish.

Two millon dollars over three years?!! Juan, I bet that new contract from FOX doesn't make you nervous.

I wonder if Juan Williams and John Williams are related?

"A racially-charged exchange at a small city council meeting in Georgia has grabbed the attention of the national media and the NAACP. In the caught-on-tape exchange, Warner Robins Councilman Daron Lee, who is black, complains, “I was disrespected on Monday. I’m getting tired of you all, talking to me any kind of way. I’m not working in a cotton field.” Councilman John Williams, who is white, replies, “You should be.”

Lee stormed out of the meeting. “He smiles in your face and makes racial remarks. I am pretty much used to it by now,” he told a CNN affiliate. But Williams says the remark was innocent. “I worked in the cotton field,” he protested. “It is not a racial remark at all. He makes everything racial.” [Article]

Yes John, Negroes down south tend to be bit sensitive about things like "cotton fields". Especially when they had to work in them it for your granddaddy without getting paid.
You know what's funny? If John Williams saw Juan's black ass walking towards him in downtown Warner Robbins,Georgia, I bet he would get nervous.

Anyway, I am sorry to hear that Juan Williams lost his job because of his little verbal faux pas. We all need our jobs here in A-merry-ca, these are tough times. I am also sorry to hear that Rick Sanchez lost his job, but... *crickets*. Still, my man Juan shouldn't worry, he will be cashing more of those Rupert Murdoch checks in no time. (Wait....) Juan's problem was that he tried to play both sides of the fence. He would jig for his FOX benefactors, and turn around and write books on civil rights and address black organizations (Like the one occasion when I had to sit through his phony dribble for CLE credits. Juan, you still owe me two hours of my life.) as if we were all ideological soul- mates. At some point, Juan, the truth will catch up to you, it always does. And now you have been exposed for the charlatan you really are. You see people, it's like this: unlike most folks; I don't think Juan believes what he said about Muslims. (How could he?) I think he said that for Bill O'Lie-ly's ears. He said that to fit in with the rest of the folks at FOX and their ongoing anti-Muslim narrative. The folks over at NPR called him on it, because, I suspect, that they have been trying to get rid of his moonlighting ass all along. This just gave them an excuse.

"Michelle Obama“got this Stokely-Carmichael-in-a-designer-dress thing going,”

And you, Juan, have this Negro in a house thing going. Actually, I think I like the Michelle Obama imagery a little more than yours.