Slave Catcher of the Week: Marcus Carter, Black Man Handing Out "Whites Only" College Scholarships

Before we meet this weeks award recipient, allow me to highlight a court ruling in Michigan yesterday that I'm sure in months to come will be heavily debated. The following story involves Affirmative Action and college admissions; which is tied to this weeks slave catcher award honoree:

Michigan's ban on considering race and gender in college admissions was struck down Friday by a federal appeals court, which ruled that the voter-approved law burdens minorities and is unconstitutional.

The 2-1 decision overturns Proposal 2, a law passed in 2006 that prohibits the state's public universities from giving "preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin."

The measure, which passed with 58% of the vote, forced the University of Michigan and other state schools to change their policies on admissions. The three-judge panel of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the law violates the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment.

The court took issue with the manner in which the ban was enacted. Because the law amended the state's constitution, only another statewide vote could change it. This created a significant obstacle for minorities who objected to the law to overcome, ruled Judges R. Guy Cole Jr. and Martha Craig Daughtrey.

"Proposal 2 reorders the political process in Michigan to place special burdens on minority interests," they said.

[...] Mark Fancher, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, which was part of a coalition that challenged the law, said the ruling would provide equal opportunity within the admissions process.

"It reopens the opportunity for minorities to not only be heard by university administrators, but have an expectation that if they can persuade the administrators that there is validity in considering their racial identity, that the university can actually act," he said.

Michigan Atty. Gen. Bill Schuette said he planned to appeal the ruling by requesting a rehearing with the entire 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. The law will remain in place pending a final decision.

The law "embodies the fundamental premise of what America is all about: equal opportunity under the law," Schuette said in a statement. "Entrance to our great universities must be based upon merit, and I will continue the fight for equality, fairness and rule of law." (source)

Oh yeah, there's that dreaded word again: merit. Funny how that word is always brought up within debates on Affirmative Action. But sadly, it's overlooked when it comes to the children of wealthy alumni donors.

Yep, merit automatically assumes that there's no way anyone represented as a minority admitted, isn't qualified; and obviously, said unqualified semi-illiterate-minority, takes away the opportunity for educational advancement for any obviously qualified person from the dominant culture.

Yep, that's the argument.

Which brings us to this weeks slave catcher: Marcus Carter. Marcus who is Black, is the vice president of the Former Majority Association for Equality, an organization that awards college scholarships exclusively to white men:


Now look, I have no problem with white men getting scholarships exclusively. I mean hell, what's wrong with making the assertion and execution white privilege official, right? However, something just ain't right with a Black man the vice president of, an organization who sees themselves as a "former" majority, now turned minority.

Nothing against white men; seriously, some of my good friends are white men. Hard to believe, I know, but it's true. But this is what baffles me: when the hell did you guys become a minority? No seriously, you guys had a significant head start in this vast land of freedom and opportunity that is America, what happened? Are youse guys that starved for some oppression in your lives? Do you think this makes us even?

I've given this award to many people for the last 3yrs, but Marcus has to be the most deserving. I know, that's hard to believe given the actions of the many slave catchers before him. And as painful as it is to give it to this obviously misguided 27-year-old Black man who has never seen any oppression (?).  Award him I must. His actions folks as small as it may seem to some, is right up there with maybe the chopping off of Kunta Kinte's feet.

I'm sure Marcus feels that he's doing the right thing. Helping the less fortunate is never bad. However, being a minority and being pimped assisting a group who falsely claims minority status, is slave catcher behavior. One has to wonder whether Marcus would donate his time, money, and energy to the United Negro Scholarship Fund as he does to his old army buddy. Though I don't know him, my guess is resounding hell no.

Somewhere, there's a dead slave who wasn't allowed to learn to read crying.

Pat Buchanan: Obama is "Affirmative Action all the Way [Because Negroes are Dumb]."

Birth Certificate? No, we wanna see his test scores!

I didn't catch this live yesterday, but I happened to peek in on Twitter, and a lot of people were pissed. Of course whenever paleoconservative Pat Buchannan speaks on the matter of race in America, it pumps life into the Klan. Can you believe this garbage? It's bad enough that president Obama's citizenship is questioned, but now this asshole is asking for Obama to provide his college test scores? Peckerwood please! When in the hell has that ever been an issue for any president of these United States of America? Now they wanna know just how he was able to get the education he did, because, well, Negroes ain't smart.

But somehow, Jorge the C-average dummy from Yale, was a genius!

Yeah, there's no way "the guy" formerly known as "that one," is capable of scoring well enough to get into some of the most prestigious schools in America. I mean after all, it's not like he was on an athletic scholarship or anything like that, right? Listen up racist assholes: Affirmative Action worked. Your gandpappy n'em was able to bring Black folks to America to work for free. So yeah, Affirmative Action was successful like a muthafucka. But if you don't like it, you can always cut us a check... BITCH! Yup, freedom and racism ain't free.

Arizona Bans Affirmative Action: One Step Closer to Whitopia

Being of Afro-Caribbean descent, and an immigrant to the United States, it's been pretty tough to watch the apathy of African Americans on the issue of immigration reform. Yeah I know the brown man came here voluntarily to work for a quarter while black folks were brought here against their will to work for free for 500yrs. While it's easy to make that distinction as justification, it's still a foolish one in my opinion.

I remember not too long ago when black folks were saying that Arizona's SB1070 anti-immigration bill wasn't our fight. Surely you remember the then hot button issue that was Arizona and it's quest to become the Whitopia of America because there were no cotton fields in the desert back in the day.

Well, I wonder what those very same black folks have to say today, now that Arizona has voted to ban Affirmative Action? Yep, guess what, black people? It's not all about those "criminal" Latinos.

This from insidehighered.com:

Voters in Arizona on Tuesday approved Proposition 107 banning the consideration of race, ethnicity or gender by units of state government, including public colleges and universities. With 2,075 of 2,239 precincts reporting as of early Wednesday morning, the measure had just under 60 percent support in unofficial state results.

Arizona joins California, Michigan, Nebraska and Washington State in imposing such bans. Only Colorado rejected a similar ban in a statewide vote. In the states of California and Michigan, the bans led to sharp drops in the admission and enrollment of black and Latino students at flagship universities, although those institutions have made progress since the initial votes in diversifying their student bodies through race-neutral methods. In those states, however, undergraduate admission to the state universities is highly competitive.

In Arizona, a populist approach to admissions means that all students who meet certain criteria are admitted – without consideration of race or ethnicity. As a result, university officials have said that undergraduate enrollments should not be affected. However, Arizona's universities – like most institutions – have many programs for minority students, some of which could be challenged. Just last August, for example, Arizona State University announced new summer fellowships in digital media for minority students.

The Curious History of Race Preferences

"Their leaders seem more intent on vying with blacks for permanent victim status than on seeking recognition for genuine progress by Hispanics over the last three decades." -- Linda Chavez on Latino/as

Linda Chavez, an anti-affirmative Latina favored by conservatives because of her last name, would have us think that Blacks, Latino/as, and other people of color are looking for handouts and preferential treatment. Ironically, it is she who has benefited professionally and financially by trading on her own Latina heritage. Like many conservatives, she claims that segregation was defeated and white prejudice almost completely eradicated after Congress passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act . She goes as far as saying (as many black and brown enablers of racial conservatives do) that it has been liberals that have derailed Latino/a progress. I call those who deny the reality of racism racial conservatives. I have addressed their shoddy scholarship earlier (click here).

You might know of Chavez, she testified against Supreme Court Judge Sotomayor during Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings last year. Chavez has a particular dislike for Latino/as in general and for Puerto Ricans in partiucular, but I will not explore that today. I will address her sub-standard scholarship and self-loathing when I address Black and Brown conservatives at a later date. Chavez had to step down as a nominee for Labor of Secretary under the catastrophe known as the Bush II administration because, yes, she hired an illegal Latina immigrant. She denied knowing said individual was here illegally though the person in question contradicted that denial. Later, Chavez herself would issue an admission of sorts and was forced by Bush’s handlers to step down.

Therefore, if I call Chavez a hypocrite (she admonished Clinton appointees who did the same), it’s not character assassination, it’s an observation. Calling her a come mierda (shit eater) can be perceived as an attack on her character, but -- fuck it -- she’s a shit eater if ever there was one...

Chavez and other racial conservatives believe the United States has made better progress in removing racial barriers than progressives and people of color acknowledge. The shift began, they argue, during the 1950s. And when the Civil Rights movement succeeded in abolishing Jim Crow, white racism had all but withered away. As a result, at least according to Chavez and her masters, affirmative action programs are unnecessary and in fact are a form of “reverse racism.”

Playin' the King Card

(Editor's Note: In keeping with everything MLK this week. I bring to you a guest post from my man Eddie Blue Eyes, of the blog [un]Common Sense. Hope you enjoy this offering from my brother from another mother who just happens to be Puerto Rican. Do pay attention to the video from my man @jsmooth995 of illdoctrine.com.)

"A society that has done something special against the Negro for hundreds of years must now do something special for him, in order to equip him to compete on a just and equal basis." -- Dr. King, Where Do We Go From Here? Chaos or Community?

When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was alive, mainstream society viewed him mostly with fear and contempt. In response to King’s anti-war stance (as expressed in a 1967 speech), TIME magazine called King a “demagogue for Radio Hanoi.” Years later, Ronald Reagan the Great damned King as a near communist.

Today, however, a miracle has taken place in America: Dr. King was a conservative! By taking a snippet from one 1963 address Dr. King has been co-opted by the right as the most quoted opponent of affirmative action in America today.

While the transformation of King from communist to conservative is almost complete, it deserves an explanation.

It should come as no surprise that Martin Luther King, Jr. would have his words taken out of context. After all, King’s status today effectively ensures that writers, academics, pundits, and politicians will feel compelled to borrow King’s words to advance an agenda. What better political plum than claiming the ideological support of an iconic figure such as King? Nowhere is the tendency to “play the King card” more evident than in the claim by dozens of contemporary conservative writers, academics, pundits, and politicians that King’s basic goal was “color-blindness” and that he viewed such visual impairment as the road by which racism would best be addressed.