Conservative Matthew Philbin Makes World Cup Soccer a Racial Issue of American Force Fed Diversity

Can I put my Panamanian/West-Indian hat on for a second?  Every four years, my soul is renewed when the World Cup gets underway.  For as long as I can remember, I have loved soccer.

Growing up in Panama in a working class neighborhood, soccer is what you did. If kids played soccer as part of a league, we didn't know. Soccer (or as I will refer to it as futbol) was universal. You played it for fun. You played for recess. You played it after school. You played it pretending you were your favorite team. You played with anything round and bouncy and large enough. So for me, FUTBOL has been something that has coursed through my veins, much like blood. For me, it's Life, Liberty, the Pursuit of Happiness and FUTBOL.

Of course after having watched Cameroon in Italy '90 World Cup, my love was cemented. I saw all these teams, but there was one team that was black like me and they were good. They were underdogs, and nobody took them seriously it seemed, but my pride was and my belief in them was steadfast, and they did not disappoint.

So when I ask for a little bit of respect for futbol, or share my love for it, I am not involved in some liberal plot to bring down Americans nor am I against American "exceptionalism" as Matthew Philbin so ignorantly put it:

The liberal media have always been uncomfortable with "American exceptionalism" - the belief that the United States is unique among nations, a leader and a force for good. And they are no happier with America's rejection of soccer than with its rejection of socialism.

Hence Americans are "xenophobic," "isolated" and lacking in understanding for other nations and their passion for "the planetary pastime," as Time magazine put it. But, they are confident, as America becomes more Hispanic, the nation will have to give in and adopt the immigrants' game. On the other hand, the media assure the public that soccer is already "America's Game," and Americans are enthusiastically anticipating the World Cup, even though the numbers don't bear that contention out.

So, every four years they return with renewed determination to force soccer's square peg in the round hole of American culture.

Part of the liberal sales pitch for soccer is its popularity with Hispanics. Liberals who fetishize race are eager to adopt a sport with a special appeal for a certain minority, and it would never occur to them that new arrivals to the country might be well served adapting to traditional U.S. pastimes. To the left, it's America that must change.

Saporito maintained that "the browning of America," will grow the sport. Time's Sanchez told Scarborough, "... you know, when America becomes a nonwhite majority nation in 2040, I mean, you know, the sport of soccer is the sport of, you know, of Hispanic Americans, of all kinds of immigrants to America."

Apparently, every four years while most of the world gets positive, American neo-cons go on vitriolic tirades on the internet to attack a sport that could give a shit less about whether or not they like it. For Philbin to pull the "race card" is absolutely disgusting. I don't care what Saporito's ideas are; and to be honest, several American players on the US team credit their love of futbol to growing up in Texas, and playing with Mexicans. Look at where they are now.

Is that so bad?

Police Gone Wild: 15-year-old catches a bad one at the hands of Indianapolis police

I read the story of 15yr old Brandon Johnson's encounter with a few police officers in my old college stomping grounds of Indianapolis, IN. My first reaction to the story was that of disappointment.

Sorry, no disappointment in hearing about police giving a ginormous beatdown to a 15yr old kid - it happens all the time. Instead, my disappointment comes in the fact that it took a month for it to make national headlines! I swear, racism chasing has it's challenges, but anyway...

A few other things bothered me upon reading the story; I'll get to that in a bit:

INDIANAPOLIS — The city's police chief called Thursday for the firing of a white officer who he said repeatedly struck a 15-year-old biracial boy in the face during an arrest after the teen had been subdued by other officers.

Chief Paul Ciesielski said Officer Jerry Piland needlessly struck Brandon Johnson several times during the May 16 arrest near the boy's home. Johnson was left with gaping wounds on his swollen face and a black eye.

"It was a difficult decision, but I know it was the right decision to terminate his employment because that certainly serves as an example that we have a zero-tolerance policy," Ciesielski said at a news conference.

[...] The teen's family and black community leaders have called for a federal investigation into whether Johnson's civil rights were violated. Piland, 36, and the other three officers directly involved in the arrest are white, while Johnson's mother is black and his father is white.

"I'm grateful to have one bad cop off the streets, but there was a lot of wrongdoing here that day," Johnson's mother, Chantay Chandler, said at a news conference Thursday at the family's home. Family representatives called on the department to fire the four officers directly involved in the arrest, but not a fifth officer who stood on the periphery.

[...] A police report said witnesses saw Johnson's brother try to kick in the door of an abandoned building near their home and officers who responded went to arrest him for breaking and entering. Police say Johnson and others protested the arrest, and that when an officer tried to arrest Johnson he resisted, squaring up as if to strike the officer and breaking the officer's grip when he was nearly handcuffed.

Piland, who was off duty and lived in the neighborhood, showed up in plain clothes and tried to help the other officers, the chief said. He smacked Johnson in the face with his open hand and used his knee to apply pain when the teen fell to the ground until a third officer interceded, he said.

At that point, Piland should have helped control Johnson, but instead struck him more times with his open hand, Ciesielski said. - (Source)

OK, so maybe I'm nitpicking when I say I have a problem with him being referenced s biracial. Yep, I'm having a hard time understanding the need to mention that his father is white. What, did the cops beat his ass treat him less inhumane because of that fact?

Queen of England has a message for Americans in response to BP oil spill

I'm not sure if the recent terrorist attack on America by BP could actually be the start to World War III, or maybe a rematch of that whole American Revolution/We-Kicked-Your-Ass-England, thing. I mean, something has to come out of this whole conflict besides a stupid draw in the World Cup soccer match between USA & Great Britain. And quite frankly, another timely gift of a preloaded iPod from President Barack Obama just won't be enough to ease the tensions between both great nations.

So, in light of the obvious hate America has for the Tea & Crumpet Taliban, the Queen has decided to share some thoughts. I mean somebody has to say something as tensions build between both countries, right? I mean, she can't be any worse than BP CEO, Tony Hayward. Besides, like New York mayor Michael Bloomberg said in defense of Hayward, “The guy that runs BP didn’t exactly go down there and blow up the well.”

Um, don't shoot the messenger:

Facebook has racially insulted me, and I'm calling the NAACP

You know, racism shows up in the weirdest of places. A few days ago I told you about the Los Angeles chapter of the NAACP and their fight against Hallmark card racism, in the aisle of a local Walmart [read here]. Yep, that racism sure will sneak up on you and surprise even an experienced racism ambulance chaser such as myself. Case in point, checkout what my arch-nemesis "Mr. Racism" did to me this morning as I logged on to my Facebook fan page:

Now if you're ever on Facebook, you probably get pissed off at their "suggestions" that show up on your homepage. Every day they'll "suggest" that I say "hi", or reconnect with someone who you don't even remember from High School. And if that's not bad enough, they "suggest" you become friends with some person that you "might" know, who just happens to be connected to one of your contacts!

Hey Facebook, here's a "suggestion": Dump those stupid YoFarmMafiaVille Apps that people keep sending me invitations to! Yeah, how about you "suggesting to other people," that they stop sending me that stuff!!

I never follow or take heed to any of their suggestions, and I guess they're tired of it. I mean, what else would explain them encouraging me via my Fan page to send a gift of watermelon slices to my friends and readers? But then again, I could be wrong. Maybe they're just tired of all my racism chasing posts and they decided to "learn me," as some of my Midwest and Southern folks would say. Yeah, that sounds plausible.

Surely if I took them up on their "suggestion", the six hundred or so subscribers to my Fan page would think it's a joke. That said, maybe I should put away my racism chasing glasses and follow up on their suggestion. After all, it had to be an attempt at Negro humor by the good folks over at Facebook, right?

Maybe I'll send out actual pairs of watermelon shoes pictured above to my fellow Facebook racism chasers. Yeah, maybe that's better than Facebook's "gift shop" suggestion. Coming from me, surely they'll get the joke.

Click to join my Fan Page

American Apparel Doesn't Want "Trashy" Black Women and Relaxed Hair?

I have always found American Apparel to be ultra trashy clothing.  I haven't even been able to buy a single piece just because whenever I got to the website, I feel like I'm actually surfing the web for porn; and, I'm assaulted by emaciated looking women; women who look like they've just done a line in the bathroom, or drugged with Rohypnol. 

Now American Apparel is no stranger to controversy.  It usually stems from their trashy images, but this time they are in some hot water for being materialistic douche bags.  What I found most interesting about the post was this: 

Another former AA manager says that she received the following instructions as to what kind of black girls she should try to hire during the company's open calls:

"none of the trashy kind that come in, we don't want that. we're not trying to sell our clothes to them. try to find some of these classy black girls, with nice hair, you know?"

i will remember that forever, especially the "nice hair" part. he was instructing another manager and i on who to look for during an upcoming open call, and i sat there dumbfounded, listening to him speak while the other manager made "uh huh, got it" sounds on her end of the phone. the other manager on the call with me later became a district manager, and at one point instructed me to tell two of my employees (both of whom happened to be black females) to stop straightening their hair. i refused to do this, but wondered if the mentality behind her request was related to what dov had said.

If you're asking yourself if they asked them to stop straightening their hair (and most likely go and stay natural), don't  You read that correctly.

I am not surprised by this.  American Apparel's CEO Dov Charney is a little pervert who is living out his teenage revenge fantasies to screw impressionable, and quite thirsty, chicks who want to model.   I'm also not surprised that a fashion establishment has an issue with black consumers.  We know the game.  What I am totally surprised at is the possible implication, for once in all my 28 years of life, that natural hair is nice hair...

Your Tax Dollars at Work: 15yr old Mexican citizen shot by U.S. Border Patrol in Mexico

I heard about this story a couple of days ago. I decided to stay away from it, because, well, it wouldn't make a difference; nobody cares about the lives of "other" people. Besides, he's just one less potential fence jumper we have to worry about, right? However, in keeping with the tradition of highlighting injustices on this site. I present to you the story of Sergio Adrian Hernandez Güereca and how he lost his life all on your dime. And I present this to you courtesy of the good folks at Democracy Now!, an independent news source like no other:


Part II:


Oh well, shooting and killing children in other countries isn't anything new. The U.S. government has been doing just that for decades, no? Sure, I understand that this kid's death doesn't make up for all the crimes committed in the US of A by "illegal immigrants". But does that really matter when he was killed on his native soil by a foreigner? Does the unnecessary use of deadly force not matter?

Did the Border Patrol have to respond by firing shots?

His death is truly unfortunate; but like I said, nobody cares; not even the union who represents the Border Patrol. In a statement on their website, they labeled the deceased as a criminal. Yep, according to them, he was a part of a coyote smuggling ring. So once again, brown people are reduced to being less than human, labeled as criminals, which gives justification to their lives being taken from them.

Alvin Greene Speaks: If he was White, would we be having this conversation?

I've been scratching my head about this Alvin Greene story. Now I'm hearing the brother who looks like Simon Adebisi straight out of the HBO series Oz, has a pending felony charge which involves pornography?! Not that the felony charge is surprising; hell, 9 out of 8 black men are felons; and this is South Carolina we're talking about here.

Like most people I have my questions about the guy and just how exactly did he manage to pull off the the seemingly impossible. How does a guy without a job run for the U.S. Senate without as much of a peep being said about it in the media before now? Given the state of the United States  economy and the 11.7% unemployment rate in South Carolina, surely this guy's story would have been one for the ages before now.

Instead, we're all left to wonder if he's the new Manchurian Candidate, or the latest Kenyan-born brother with political aspirations to hit the scene. So where did he come from? Where did he get his money? How did he do it? All questions inquiring minds would love to know; but, he isn't saying much other than that he has no intentions of dropping out of the race. And quite frankly, I don't think he should. Why should he have to?

Los Angeles NAACP chapter finally solves the city's racial problem

I'm not sure if this is a good or a bad thng, but apparently racism is on a decline here in America. Well, maybe not America entirely; but at least out in Los Angeles. I mean, I could be wrong; hell, I'm just a freelance racism chaser with a blog. But when professionals like the Los Angeles chapter of the NAACP stars finding racism in the Hallmark card section of Walmart, what are people like me supposed to think:

CULVER CITY, Calif. (KABC) — A graduation card sold at local stores has been pulled from shelves after a civil rights group raised concerns about the content. The group claims the card’s micro-speaker plays a greeting that’s racist.

It is a graduation greeting from Hallmark that says, “Hey world, we are officially putting you on notice.”

Members of the Los Angeles NAACP did take notice. As characters known as “Hoops” and “Yoyo” banter on, African American leaders hear offensive language.

“And you black holes, you are so ominous. Watch your back,” the card vocalizes.

“That was very demeaning to African American women. When it made reference to African American women as whores and at the end, it says ‘watch your back,’” said Leon Jenkins of the Los Angeles NAACP.

When Hallmark was reached by phone, they said the card is all a misunderstanding. The card’s theme is the solar system and emphasizes the power of the grad to take over the universe, even energy-absorbing black holes.

The card company says the card speaks about the power the grad will wield.

“The intent here is to say that this graduate is not afraid of anything,” explained Hallmark spokesman Steve Doyal.

But that’s not what some people heard.

“You hear the ‘r’ in there. ‘Whores,’ not, ‘holes.’ The ‘r’ is in there,” said Minnie Hatley of the Los Angeles NAACP.

Hallmark sent Eyewitness News a transcript of what the card says, but Hatley says that the actual audio raises questions.

I don't know if you agree with the NAACP on this one or not. All I can say is that obviously out in L.A. things have changed. Once upon a time minorities were caught on tape being beaten by cops; being acquitted of murdering rich white women; and, rioting while throwing the occasional brick at unsuspecting white truck drivers!


But not today, folks; and the NAACP has obviously done a fine job of eradicating the once racial climate that was Los Angeles. Hell, I might just pack up my family and move out there. Shit, at least I won't have to worry about some graduation card calling one of my daughters a "black hole." I mean that's obviously worse than being called a bitch by one of those Compton gangster rappers, right? Oh snap!! I forgot the NAACP was successful in stopping those gangster rappers when they buried the word "nigger" a few years ago.

Way to go Colored folks!

Unemployed Democrat Alvin Greene wins South Carolina's Senate nomination

I know the talking heads will spend much time breaking down Super Tuesday's primary results. Yep, we're gonna hear all about Blanch Lincoln's miraculous against-all-odds win in her Arkansas primary challenge. However, I wanted to take a moment to highlight a brother they will not be talking about; a brother who dared to defy the odds of running a successful campaign while unemployed.

His name is Alvin Greene, and is a virtually unknown in South Carolina, let alone in politic. He has accomplished something never heard of  in an age where success is borne out of heavy campaign financing. In an age where in 2008, the average winning representative spent $8 million to sit in a House seat:

An unemployed 32-year-old black Army veteran with no campaign funds, no signs, and no website shocked South Carolina on Tuesday night by winning the Democratic Senate primary to oppose Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC). Alvin Greene, who currently lives in his family's home, defeated Vic Rawl, a former judge and state legislator who had a $186,000 campaign warchest and had already planned his next fundraising event.

Despite the odds, Greene, who has been unemployed for the past nine months, said that he wasn't surprised by his victory. "I wasn’t surprised, but not really. I mean, just a little, but not much. I knew I was on top of my campaign, and just stayed on top of everything, I just—I wasn't surprised that much, just a little. I knew that I worked hard and did," Greene said in an interview.

Greene insists that he paid the $10,400 filing fee and all other campaign expenses from his own personal funds. "It was 100 percent out of my pocket. I’m self-managed. It’s hard work, and just getting my message to supporters. I funded my campaign 100 percent out of my pocket and self-managed," said Greene, who sounded anxious and unprepared to speak to the public.

But despite his lack of election funds, Greene claims to have criss-crossed the state during his campaign—though he declined to specify any of the towns or places he visited or say how much money he spent while on the road. 

Now of course, as to be expected there is local media speculation as to whether he's a Republican plant. Sure, because there's no way a black man can pull something like this off. Yep, not in political circles dominated by the chitlin rubbed armpits of South Carolina's Republican elite.

Obama's Katrina? Where's Dick Cheney in all of this? He sure has been quiet, hasn't he?

Forget the "ass kicking" talk, and let's get down to business:


One can argue that Obama is shifting blame to the Bush administration as he always does. Yes, I know, even for me it gets old. But the one thing you cannot deny, is just how much the previous administration totally fucked us the American people over in the pursuit of corporate greed. You know, typical Republican stuff. But, we'll see just how committed the Obama administration is dedicated to changing much of this in the wake of the worst environmental disaster in American history.

BP courted and funded Republicans heavily; but, let's not pretend that Obama did not receive from BP the most by way of campaign funds in the last 20yrs in 2008. So while we do our finger pointing, and express our outrage, be sure to point them in the right directions. Our politicians are just as culpable as is BP in this mess.

The Center for American Progress lays this all out front and center, in a piece titled Prelude to Cheney's Katrina. It is well worth the read, and contains factual evidence of just how Cheney's secret National Energy Policy Task Force which concluded in May 2001 a plan that “advanced, more energy efficient drilling and production methods: reduce emissions; practically eliminate spills from offshore platforms; and enhance worker safety, lower risk of blowouts, and provide better protection of groundwater resources.”

Plain and simple, oil companies like BP were free to do as they please: