Single Mothers And The Hypocrisy Of Mike Huckabee

Last week a furor broke out over comments Mike Huckabee, the arch-religious conservative, made about Oscar winner Natalie Portman. You see, Natalie had committed the absolute worst sin:

And no, I'm not talking about the fact that she starred in a movie with Ashton Kutcher.

Portman's sin was that she had the AUDACITY to get pregnant out of wedlock. This is completely unacceptable. Who in the Hell does Natalie Portman think she is? Bristol Palin?

During an interview with conservative radio host Michael Medved, Huckabee had his Dan Quayle moment. This is what he said:

"You know Michael, one of the things that's troubling is that people see a Natalie Portman or some other Hollywood starlet who boasts of, 'Hey look, you know, we're having children, we're not married, but we're having these children, and they're doing just fine.' But there aren't really a lot of single moms out there who are making millions of dollars every year for being in a movie. And I think it gives a distorted image that yes, not everybody hires nannies, and caretakers, and nurses. Most single moms are very poor, uneducated, can't get a job, and if it weren't for government assistance, their kids would be starving to death and never have health care. And that's the story that we're not seeing, and it's unfortunate that we glorify and glamorize the idea of having children out of wedlock.

You know, right now, 75 percent of black kids in this country are born out of wedlock. 61 percent of Hispanic kids -- across the board, 41 percent of all live births in America are out of wedlock births. And the cost of that is simply staggering."

Is Huckabee telling the truth? Are "most" single moms very poor, uneducated, and can't get a job?

The short answer is no. The long answer is this: 80 percent of single mothers work. Fewer than 10 percent are recipients of TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families). And 26 percent live below the poverty line.

26 percent! I suck at math, but even I know that 26 percent is not "most."

In a recent post for The Nation, Melissa Harris-Perry said that maybe Huckabee was really attacking teen mothers. After all, that's where the real crisis is. Only 50 percent of teen mothers finish high school. And the children of teens have higher risk of being born prematurely, having low birth rate, and dying during infancy.

I've seen "16 and Pregnant." I've seen teenage mothers holding their baby while sitting at the bus stop. I've seen my own 16 year-old sister struggle to take care of her kid.

And there is nothing sadder than a pregnant teenager. Because you already know that the odds of her kid making it in this cruel world is slim.

But Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, is just like every other card-carrying member of the Religious Right. They believe the way to get teen girls to stop having babies is to teach them abstinence.

Teaching kids abstinence is like sending Charlie Sheen to rehab. It doesn't work. It's counterproductive.

According to the CDC Healthwatch, the states with the highest teen birth rates were the states that emphasized abstinence-only programs. The five worst states (with rates of 60 pregnancies per 1,000 teens) are Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and . . . (drumroll) . . . ARKANSAS, Huckabee's old stomping ground.

Meanwhile, the states with the lowest teen birth rates (25 pregnancies per 1,000 teens) are Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire. And they all offer sex education to their high school students. They teach them about the birds and the bees. They tell them, "Girls, you have a vagina. Boys, you have a penis. And when two people love each other, they have sex. And then they get married, and they stop having sex!"

To Mike Huckabee and all the other Christian Conservatives, here's something I want to "impregnate" into your skulls: You CANNOT have it both ways. You can't reject sex education, tell women they can't have safe (AND LEGAL) abortions, or access to birth control, and then turn around and complain that there are too many out-of-wedlock children in America.

If you guys want to reduce the number of women who have children out of wedlock, tell those Republican assholes in the House of Representatives to not defund Planned Parenthood. That would be the logical thing to do. But logic is a street that you guys refuse to drive on.

And these Christian Conservatives are the same Republicans who are so in favor of "personal freedom." But that freedom is restricted only to those who walk and talk the way they do. If you don't believe in their God, if you have an out-of-wedlock baby, if you have an abortion, and if you're gay, these people turn into the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld:

"No freedom for you!"

Let's go back to Huckabee's comment, the part where he says . . . "75 percent of black kids in this country are born out of wedlock. 61 percent of Hispanic kids -- across the board, 41 percent of all live births in America are out of wedlock births. And the cost of that is simply staggering."

This is the shit that pisses me off! Read between the lines. What he is saying is "these black and hispanic women are having these out-of-wedlock babies. And your tax dollars should not have to take care of their kids!" Every time I hear someone on the right talk about black women having babies, my bullshit radar starts going haywire. After all, it was Ronald Reagan who introduced America to the fairy tale known as the "welfare queen", the unwed black mother who committed welfare fraud, and used her government money to buy Cadillacs.

Ask anybody black and they'll tell you that was a bold-faced lie. Black women weren't taking their welfare checks and buying luxury cars. The truth is that black women were just trying to survive. A few of them were irresponsible, just not all of them. But truth is stranger than fiction. The Republicans needed to demonize welfare and they found poor black women to be easy targets.

Here's some more truth for you: The "cost" of all these black and hispanic kids does NOT come from being born of out wedlock. It comes from 30 years of Republican policies. Policies that cut taxes for rich white guys, while cutting social programs for black and hispanic kids. Policies that gave the economic pie to the wealthy, and gave the middle finger to everybody else.

"No pie for you!"

If Mike Huckabee wanted to criticize a celebrity, why didn't he pick on Lindsay Lohan for being a washed-up jailbird.? Or Kim Kardashian for being insufferable?

Why did he choose Natalie Portman? She may be having an out of wedlock baby, but she's engaged to her babydaddy. This girl is not your typical Hollywood starlet. She's intelligent. She went to Harvard. And there is a zero percent chance that you will ever see her on TMZ flashing her crotch as she steps out of a limo.

And didn't Huckabee watch Star Wars? Doesn't he know Natalie Portman's baby is going to one day defeat Darth Vader and blow up the Death Star?

I guess Huck was too much of a coward to say anything about that out-of-wedlock-baby-having, riding-on-the-coattails-of-her-mama, high-school-dropout Bristol Palin. Guess he didn't want to get mauled by Mama Grizzly.

And just to show how much of a hypocrite Mike Huckabee is, check out this quote he made about 16-year old, unwed Disney star Jamie Lynn Spears (Britney's sister) back in 2007:

"I respect it. Apparently she's going to have the child and I think that it's the right decision, a good decision, and I respect that and appreciate it. I hope it is not an encouragement to other 16 year olds who think that is the best course of action. But at the same time, I'm not going to condemn her."

Of course, now that public opinion has tilted heavily in favor of Portman, Huckabee is trying to walk back his comments, blaming it all on Hollywood and the liberal media. PRICELESS! Hey Mr. Sanctimonious, Hollywood and the media didn't say anything negative about Natalie Portman. YOU DID!

And finally, you know who was raised by a single mother? I WAS! And I seemed to have turned out alright. I got a job. I pay my bills. And I'm not in jail. I have aunts, cousins, and friends who are single mothers. There are millions of single mothers in America. And you know what? Most of them kick ass! They have a hard job, a job made harder by a society that demonizes them but refuses to hold men to the same standards.

So to all you single moms who are out there doing your best, who are out there trying to make a dollar out of 15 cents, and who don't need a man to "put a ring on it," I salute you. And to Mike Huckabee, I salute you to. The only difference is that I'm giving you the one-finger salute.

Care to guess which finger?

http://balmer.typepad.com/princeofsatire

Muammar Gaddafi: The Realest Brotha in Africa

So, people are asking or would like to see some form of U.S. intervention - military or otherwise, but really military - in Libya. Meanwhile, elsewhere on the African continent, there's this place called Darfur, and...

So anywhichaways, ya boy RiPPa ain't here to start no trouble or bother nobody. Yep, not trynna raise no awareness about ongoing conflicts in Africa them media peoples ain't talking about. But, I'm just gon' take a minute out of my recovery from eye surgery to shout-out my man Maummar Gaddafi (or however you spell that niggas name).

First off, I ain't really been paying attention to the goings on over there, but I've heard that "people" want him out. Damn, where's the love Libiya? Just sayin', y'ont get a nigga back like that (?).

I know them Western cowboys ain't been feelin the brotha for minute. But I thought we was over that whole beef? I mean Ronald Reagan tried to murk the brotha back in the day 'cuz he wasn't feeling Saddam Hussein, back when we liked that nigga. Back when Iran was trynna take him out. Funny how the script gets flipped, right?

Shit, it was allgood a week ago when Dubya and Muammar kissed and made up after he denounced Al-Queda, Tupac Shakur, and Thug Life 'n shit. But now, we back on that Ole hater-ass-hater drama; and, my man Gaddafi ain't goin' out. No sir, he ain't gon' give up his corner or block just like that - yeah, fuck whatever Marlo say; I got oil bitch, and I'm rich!

So anyway, today I heard Gaddafi say some shit that to me, qualified as a real nigga moment. Speaking to the world via Turkish TV, dude basically said the following in defiance:

"Ok, y'all wanna take me out? Alright. Just know that if you do, Africans will invade Europe, have sex with white folks, and Europe will become Black."

Of course he didn't exactly say those words; I'm paraphrasing, but that's what the hell he meant. And there's no doubt about it, folks.

Now see, to a brotha like me with an appreciation for all types of ill shit and gangsterisms? That. Shit. Was. Epic! Seriously, he went there, son. Muammar Gaddafi pulled the race card, told them fools and kept it real.

In a Tony Montana sorta way? That shit qualifies as a real nigga moment.Yup, and in my head he had a mountain of coke on his desk when he said that shit too. I'm just sayin', that was the ultimate "fuck you... you don't want it with Hov'," type move. Hey, what can I say? When it rains, niggas get wet. And, Gaddafi has been good to many governments and rebel groups in Africa over the years.

Sure this ain't enough to make anyone think twice about bombing his ass. But do the elites in Europe really want an influx of Africans to add to their "immigrant" problem? In particular, the problem they have with Muslim immigrants? You know, the whole Sharia Law thing that's taking America by storm? Do they really want, or would they be comfortable  with Europe becoming "colorized" (more than it has) like a Ted Turner classic movie?

I dunno if any of this matters in the grand scheme of things as far as global politics. But on the real, a guy who travels the world with female bodyguards talking greasy would piss me off more than a little bit.Especially when I want him dead, and have had for decades like Western & European leaders.

A Few Candidates for the "World's Worst Parents" Award

by JuJuBe (Joanna)

 Well, from Dodge County, Georgia come the newest candidates for the Worst Parents of the Year awards.... these creeps decided to sell their teenage daughter for sex. To a 67 year old man. As "payment" for a used minivan. Once again, I have to wonder how it is that people who have no respect for their children are given such a gift. Certain people should just not reproduce, and this couple is a perfect example.

A Dodge County mother and father have pleaded guilty in connection with charges that they traded sex with their 14-year-old daughter for monthly payments on the family minivan.

Sandra Davis, 37, of Dodge County, pleaded guilty to child molestation in Dodge County Superior Court on Monday and was sentenced to eight years in prison, Oconee Circuit District Attorney Timothy Vaughn said

She also must serve 12 years on probation.

Although Davis didn’t physically abuse her daughter, she admitted trading sex with her for the van payments, Vaughn said.

The girl’s father, 39-year-old James Clarence Davis, and 67-year-old Robert Wayne Bearden, pleaded guilty to child molestation and were sentenced to 10 years in prison, followed by 10 years on probation, Vaughn said.

Dodge County sheriff’s investigators have said the girl’s parents made her perform “sexual favors” for Bearden, who was manager of Shorty’s Used Cars in Eastman in 2010, so they wouldn’t have to make the $281 payments on their 1998 Dodge Caravan......

.......As part of their sentences, the girl’s parents and Bearden can’t have any contact with the girl for 20 years. When they’re released on probation, all three will be considered sex offenders, Vaughn said.

Bearden, who made an unsuccessful run for the state Senate in the 1970s, also pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, Vaughn said.

The allegations first surfaced in 2009 during another investigation, he said.

In exchange for their pleas, aggravated molestation charges against the men were reduced to child molestation, and pandering charges against the parents were dismissed, Vaughn said.

SOURCE

Children are NOT commodities to be bought and sold. Animals have more of a protective instinct that parents like the Davises. I mean shit, if they needed this minivan that badly why didn't the mother get on her back for this filthy car salesman instead of forcing her child to do it??

This young girl will forever have to live with the knowledge that her parents used her body to barter for a vehicle. Thank Goodness they will not be allowed to see this girl for 20 years. She does not need this sort of influence in her life.

The young girl, now 16 did speak to the judge, and said she is doing much better now that she is in a nurturing environment. She is reported to be doing well in school and in extracurricular activities.

She is now living the sort of life that every young girl deserves, no thanks to her deviant "parents"!

Check out the Next Nominee after the jump...

Would you leave your kids with this couple?

by Joanna

See, now stories like this one are the reason I plan on staying home with my children. I do not care how much I have to scrimp and save, if I am lucky enough to become a mother, I will be a stay at home mom. No day care centers, no public schools, I am not having any of that. For good reason. After all, why would I want to trust a stranger with the most precious gift in the world?

Snack time could have been terrifying at a North Carolina day care center that was discovered to also house a secret meth lab.

Police arrested the owner of Kit Kat's Place Family Child Care and her boyfriend Tuesday after records showing the pair had purchased large amounts of pseudoephedrine -- a key component for cooking methamphetamine -- raised red flags.

"It’s not good to have a meth lab period," said Sgt. Rick Hasson, who made the bust in Morganton, N.C. "To show up at one that is licensed as a day care is that much worse … I hope this is the last one we ever run across that is a licensed day care."

Katrina Epperson, 27, received her license to operate the day care center the same day investigators swarmed the place and cuffed her, local health department spokeswoman Lori Walston told the Morganton News Herald.

No children had yet been enrolled at the center, which was cleared to care for up to eight kids up to age 12.

Cops also busted Epperson's boyfriend, 32-year-old Christopher Webb, who appears to have been living with Epperson at the residence they allegedly set up as a day care on the ground floor and a meth kitchen in the basement.

They both were held in lieu of $25,000 bail, and Epperson's license to operate a day care immediately was suspended.

Epperson has four children -- all under age 10 -- who were taken into custody by social services.

Local authorities said it was the first time a day care has been used to front a methamphetamine lab in the area.

"I think it is alarming to all of us, not only for the children who could have been there but for our staff that has to monitor it," said health department official Tammy Barnes.

"I guess people are using anything they can for a cover, and it’s just really scary to all of us." SOURCE

There's Nothing un-American About Calling President Obama a Kenyan

So I've been thinking. You know all this Obama hate? Yeah, all this Kenya talk that's really not "hate" or "racist", but instead an expression of defiance and discontent over his policies? Yeah, I finally figured this stuff out. Sure, it's some Ole racist-ass-racist bullshit; but, it's deeper than the traditional "we hate niggers," type of racism.

I totally missed it when Newt Gingrich brought it up some time ago. But last week when Mike Huckabee was talking out the side of his ass, about Obama's different view of the British and such, from his Arkansas trailer park? Like America didnt get its start from kicking British ass in a most expedient anti-colonial manner? I figured it out: these white folks are more pissed about Barack's daddy than they are Barack Obama himself!

I mean why else would would they be so fixated on Kenya as they are? White folks ain't gave a damn 'bout Africa since 'We Are The World' back in the day. But naw, all of a sudden a brotha starts talking about 'Hope & Change' and err'body wanna see a birth certificate, DNA, and a Maury Povich lie detector test episode.

You see folks, this is about the fact that Barack's daddy, or his daddy's, daddy's, daddy, didn't volunteer to come to America and pick cotton for free. Yep, nobody white ever counted on slavery backfiring to produce America's first Black president. And now they're talking 'bout being an oppressed minority group in Amuur'cuh 'n shit, without never having to utter the word Massa to n'aan Negro.

See, forget 'Audacity Of Hope', son. Here's the deal. Barack's daddy had the Audacity Of Stroke to do the horizontal watusi with a white woman that produced a Halfrican child... in America. A child who would grow up with bigger dreams than going platinum, playing in the NBA, or reppin' his hood in the penetentiary, to become the most powerful man in the world, unlike his distant American-Negro cousins.

You see, if Barack's last name was Washington - the most popular last name of African Americans - there'd be no talk of his father or Kenya. They may have dug up some stuff about him being a relative of O.J. Simpson or some other beloved Negro like Louis Farrakhan . But you'd never hear anything about Mau Mau, anti-colonialism or none of that right-wing, conservative, reactionary bullshit.

The reason why there's this talk? Or why it continues though his American citizenship has been validated inspite of what's touted? It's all because Barack's great, great, great, great, greatest granddaddy was one of the Africans who got away. Sorry white supremacy, you can't catch us all; and, we damn sure don't die, we multiply.

11-year-old arrested over 'inappropriate' stick figure drawing.

Yup, you read the fvcking title right! A fvcking 11 year old child was arrested because of a fvcking drawing comprised of fvcking stick figures. Peep this BS.

ARVADA, Colo. -- An 11-year-old Arvada boy was arrested and hauled away in handcuffs for drawing stick figures in school - something his therapist told him to do.

His parents say they understand what he did was inappropriate, but are outraged by the way Arvada Police handled the case. The parents did not want their real names used.

They say "Tim" is being treated for Attention Deficit Disorder and his therapist told him to draw pictures when he got upset, rather than disrupt the class. So that’s what he did.

Last October, he drew stick figures of himself with a gun, pointed at four other stick figures with the words "teacher must die."

He felt calmer and was throwing the picture away when the teacher saw it and sent him to the principal's office.

The school was aware that the boy was in treatment, determined he was not a threat, notified his parents and sent him back to class. His mother, "Jane" was shocked when Arvada Police showed up at their home later that night.

She says she told her son to cooperate and tell the truth, but was horrified when they told her they were arresting him and then handcuffed him and hauled him away in a patrol car. His mother says she begged police to let her drive her son to the police department and to let her stay with him through the booking process but they refused.

They put him in a cell, took his mug shot and fingerprinted him. He says he thought he was going to jail and would never be able to go home again.

According to the police report, "Tim" explained he made the drawing to release anger and would never hurt teachers or anyone. At first school officials did not want to press charges, but changed their mind when police called them later that night. A juvenile assessment report shows he's never been in legal trouble before and is at low risk to reoffend.

He's charged with a third degree misdemeanor, interfering with staff and students at an educational facility. The system says it's doing what's in the best interest of the child. But Tim's therapist says handcuffing an 11-year-old and putting him in a cell over something like this is "quite an overreaction" and does much more harm than good.

Arvada Police say because Monday was a holiday, they are not able to get hold of all the personnel and reports to make a response, but will be able to respond Tuesday. Tim is on probation and if he completes that successfully, the criminal charges will be dropped. But his parents say it has cost them thousands of dollars so far.

And if they had known that their son’s cooperation would be used as evidence against him, they would have hired a lawyer at the beginning and exercised his right to remain silent.
-source-

So little Timmy has some anger issues that had been identified and the resolution was for little Timmy to use art as a means to control little Timmy's anger. Time little Timmy draw some shyt that someone saw to control his little angry issues, the Police put little Timmy in handcuffs and haul little Timmy off to jail for a veiled "I'm scared of little Timmy please get Timmy out of my class" charge of "interfering with staff and students at an educational facility."

Fo 'realz! Fo 'realz! All little Timmy did was ball up a sheet of paper Timmy did a little drawing on. There was no fvcking interfering!

One day these motherfvckers going to wonder why little Timmy got an appetite for cutting motherfvckers up and having some human thigh soup with eyeball surprise!

Shyt Folk glad these motherfvckers weren't around when Folk was little and drawing up a storm. Shyt, Folk used to draw detailed pics of cartoon characters with guns and shyt ready to get the shyt crack-a-lacking. And we ain't going to forget that little trick Mario taught Folk of how to make figures have animated sex either using flip book tech. What the Fvck are we doing to our children!?!?

But these fvckers need to be concern about is that little Timmy's art skills are a little subpar for his age. Come on, what fvcker at age 11 still drawing stick fvcking figures. Someone get this fvcker some art lessons. But don't put this fvcker in a music class, apparently little Timmy got a problem with musical appreciation. Motherfvcker might shoot somebody. Just saying.

Yup, file this under Bullshyt! Fvcking azzholes.

White Ain't Right...Or Is It?

By: Johnathan Fields

Isn't it funny how a group that has essentially taken the rhetoric of the Black Panther Party is now totally blinded by the fact their white privilege is operating as they re-color history again?

Are white's racially oppressed? Is that really a question? Do you have any understanding of what oppression is? Oppression is a state of feeling powerless. I'm confused how anyone benefitting from white privilege, in a white supremacist society, can feel powerless?

CNN's article highlights the fears of the Tea Party members, as well as "a large percentage" of whites, that they are becoming the newest racial minority. First, how do you become the "new" racial minority when you are the original racial establishment that set the standard for racial oppression in this country? Secondly, isn't racism and ignorance rooted in fear? So basically, at the root of all your worries they're operating from a place of fear. This type of thinking is the same logic for anti-miscegenation laws-white people will become the minority.

The sad reality is that we have the white right arguing how they are the minority as they benefit from all the privileges their white skins affords like walking down the street without being questioned, driving without being stopped, not going through rigorous series of application processes for jobs, scholarships, education, etc. and being able to visit Arizona. Then on the white left you have people arguing race doesn't matter any more, let's just stop talking about it. So white ain't right, it's everywhere.

White supremacy is rooted in our (in)justice system, our schools, media, relationships. Hell, it's the foundation of our country. Oppression is all about power. I'm really disturbed at how the racial group with all the power wants to cry about how they're losing some. In Rock My Soul: Black People and Self-Esteem, Black feminist scholar bell hooks' chapter "Refusing To Be a Victim" discusses why people use victimization as a tactic. She argues how playing the victim makes us "far more likely to receive attention and handouts." In her book Killing Rage: Ending Racism, she has a chapter with the same title: "Refusing To Be a Victim: Accountability and Responsibility". She talks about how some white women played the victim in feminist labor movements, gaining acceptance into the workplace before both Black men and women. Some of this acceptance was also at the hands of exploiting Black folks.

So you see, white people playing the victim is not a new trope in American society. We do this every time we get scared we're going to lose a little bit of our privilege. Any time we see a few people of color beginning to garner white supremacist notions of success, we start to worry. After all, fear is what consumes this country.

As white people continue thinking they are racially oppressed, I hope they recognize how this is all an exercise in their own white privilege. Getting buses, people, resources, etc. together and mobilizing in the nation's capital takes some type of social capital. All of that takes money, time, etc. The reason we haven't seen a movement as great as the March on Washington is because people are afraid. People don't want to sacrifice their time and sometimes can't because they have to work. You can find white people in every power-holding vector of society. Can you say that same for people of color?

White privilege is not only having white skin. It is benefitting from or reinforcing the white supremacist ideals that founded this nation--ideals that endorsed racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, ableism, etc. It is having enough ignorance to be able to skip over the realities of this country without paying full attention to the context in which you're speaking. Is white right? No, white is left too. And from the looks of it, some white ain't right...in the head.

Johnathan Fields is a DePaul University alum with a B.A. in African & Black Diaspora Studies and Philosophy. His areas of interest include: media representations of race, gender, and sexuality in popular culture, Black feminist theory, Diasporic literature and critical race theory. He is also the latest addition to this site's family of contributors. For more information, visit www.adventuresofaboxcutter.com.

Ohio Elementary School Hosts Classroom "Slave Auction"

by Joanna 

Once again, a school is in trouble for hosting a totally inappropriate simulated experience in a classroom. A few months ago, it was high school students roaming the hallways dressed as KKK members, now it is an elementary school re-enactment of a slave auction. Seriously, what was this teacher thinking? How on Earth does designating half of the children in an elementary school class as "slaves" and the other half as "masters" teach anything but bad behavior? Has this teacher never heard of the Stanford Prison Experiment?

This classroom exercise would do absolutely nothing to educate children as to the horrors of slavery. All it would succeed in doing is giving the children "a break" from the normal day to day grind of classwork, and allow them to play act roles of which that they are not mature enough to understand the significance.  In this case, the mother of a Black child complained about her son being made to play the role of a "slave", and an apology was issued. But, I am still trying to imagine in what context any teacher would consider this an appropriate exercise.

GAHANNA, Ohio — A central Ohio school district was apologizing on Thursday after an elementary school Social Studies lesson turned into a mock slave auction. 

Nikko Burton said during an American history lesson at Gahanna's Chapelfield Elementary School, the class was divided into slaves and masters, 10 Investigates' Paul Aker reported.

"I ended up being a slave," said Burton, 10. "At first I didn't care, but after people were bidding on people it kind of made me a little mad and stuff."

Burton said that the students who were playing the part of master were told to feel the students playing slaves to see if they were worth buying.

"The masters go to touch people and do all sorts of stuff," Burton said. "They got to look in your mouth and feel your legs and stuff and see if you're strong and stuff."

Burton's mother said that her son was humiliated.

She complained to Gahanna-Jefferson schools. School officials declined to comment but did issue a statement that said, in part, "As soon as the concern was brought to our attention, school officials acted promptly to speak with the parent."

"He felt degraded, he was hurt and the kids picked on him later," Aneka Burton said. "I feel like that was totally inappropriate; it was racist and it was degrading."

A district spokeswoman said the slave auction was part of state required curriculum and that it was a one-time lesson.

"I don't know how long it's been going on, but I am just shocked nobody has ever complained about it," Aneka Burton said.

While 10 Investigates was at the Burton's house, Nikko's principal called to apologize.

While the family said the apology is nice, Nikko said he is still waiting for one from his teacher.

"It was kind of mean and she should have said sorry," he said. SOURCE

The Friday Sex Blog [Women Who Gotta Have It]

Pandora's Box

Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.

-- Mae West

I’ve been reading some literature on women’s sexuality and I’ve come across some interesting findings. For too long, mainstream research has dealt almost exclusively with how often and how successfully young (but not too young), white, middle class, able-bodied, heterosexual couples consummate the act of sexual intercourse. Following a male bias, it almost exclusively isolates sex as physical and intimacy as emotional. It focuses exclusively on a few inches of mucous membrane in which achieving orgasm is described in terms as if it were mountain climbing, complete with ropes and hammers.

What this leaves out is what newer research shows and what women have been telling us for too long: what’s most important about sex, I have heard woman say countless times, is a sense of connectedness.

I would like to summarize some of what I’ve been discovering, but that will have to wait. For today, I want to elaborate on some findings via a personal experience.

Perhaps some of my readers remember an incident I reported regarding a former lover’s difficulty with sex. I had written that she had developed a tension in the body that was centered in her genital area and which made sexual penetration extremely painful for her. Eventually, working together, we were able to ease that tension, resulting in a sexual opening or awakening for both of us. For her, it was liberation from strict and repressive morals, for me it was the dawning of an awareness to the range of women’s sexual responses.

My friend, who I will call Pandora, was raised in a strict, conservative, and religious home. At the time of our relationship, she was 30 years-old and recently divorced. Her only lover was her former husband, part of a marriage of nine years.

I was in my mid-twenties, during the height of an era of sexual liberation and exploration. I discovered early on, that women would be more open to me if I were honest about my intentions and open to my emotional life. Pandora, though conflicted, took me as a lover, though she had mixed feelings.

Looking back, I can better understand how we were able to open to one another and reduce the tension that made sex so painful for her. The first time I attempted to enter her, it was almost impossible. She was tight to the point that sexual penetration was almost impossible. She cried the first time -- partly because of the physical pain, partly (she later intimated) because of shame.

As we came to know one another better, she related a sexual history that made it easy for me to understand her sexual unease. She grew up in a family in which sexual pleasure was considered sinful. As a result, she was a virgin when she married her husband. Her husband controlled almost all the aspects of their sexing. She would wear what he told her to wear. The lights were turned to the level that he liked. They had to have sex like clockwork at a certain day of the week at a certain time. For Pandora, sex meant only one thing: a responsibility -- mad rush to orgasm for her husband.

With me, because of my natural curiosity and penchant for exploration, sex was a little different. I wanted (as I have always wanted) her to “open” to me -- to be fully present surrendering the deepest recesses of her sexuality to me.

Yes, I have issues.

My desire to be engulfed by her cunt compelled me to talk to her, hold her, and kiss her in places she had never been kissed before. Oftentimes, especially in the beginning of our relationship, we talked more than we fucked. When I told her that many women don’t respond to sexual penetration alone, she was shocked. She didn’t believe me. All her life, she was taught and experienced sex from a male-dominant point o view that caused her confusion when she didn’t respond in the way her husband wanted her to respond.

And it wasn’t that he didn’t kiss her, or didn’t perform cunnilingus on her -- he did. The thing with Pandora was that it seemed that everything about the sex act was geared toward achieving the big “O.” She needed to be related to, to be utterly complete fucked. My willingness to talk to her openly about sex (I used to love to tease her by using “vulgar” terms, such as “pussy,” “cunt,” “cock,” etc.) served to open her up. And her sexual exploration became the erotic ground on which we built our sexing. We would visit sex shops and browse through them, looking at and laughing at the different toys. I would explore her body, and slowly, she came to trust me enough to tell me what she liked and didn’t like.

Eventually, Pandora took charge of her own sexual awakening and once she opened to me, there was no holding back. I still remember the moment her pussy yawned open for me, hot with sexual desire, slippery with her want. I think she yelled something out, I don’t remember what, but we laughed about it later. I would often tease her that we had created a monster.

Pandora would explain that all her life, she was trying to conform to what she know saw as a male model for sexual pleasure and when she “failed” to conform to that model, the message was that there was something wrong with her, that she was frigid, or sexually defected. What she discovered, was that what was missing from her sexual life was a sense of connectedness. When she eventually took control of our sexual exploration, she became my guide for the map of her body. This was a liberation for both of us.

Love,

Eddie

"Chasing Chocolate": A White Man's Tale of the Interracial Sexual Politics of Gay Male Communities

By: Johnathan Fields

In my previous relationships, it has become very clear to my peers that a pattern developed: the majority of men I'd dated were Black. Yes, I've "gotten my swirl on", "liked chocolate", and whatever other colloquialism my peers wanted to prescribe to my romantic relationships to reduce them to some dessert dish society will consume, digest, misappropriate and attempt to delegitimize. Keep in mind, these are the less harsh comments I received. As is the case with many relationships, all the weight of my peers' baggage had been placed upon my relationships such that I'd been told not to date Black men because they will run up my credit (a Black gay man, mind you), to "be cautious of their big, Black dick", and whatever other stereotype or myth that came to mind as they decided to spew out their word vomit.

Let's clear up a few things: I have never given any man the opportunity to "run my credit up" and I have met plenty of non-Black men with a, shall we say, "plentiful member" as well as some Black men who don't quite size up to the myths that chase their identities. All this to say, it is quite interesting to watch how gay interracial sexual politics have been constructed within our communities and how we allow heterosexual taboo to steer our desires and understandings of self/others.

This is not only the reality I have seen surface in certain queer spaces but also the socially imposed stereotype that has followed the taboo that is interracial dating. While I'd like to speak generally and say men who date outside their race, I've noticed the myth of the "BBC" seems to predominantly affect Black men (and perhaps some Latino and other "ethnic" men).

Black men are seemingly only given visibility or acknowledgment in gay culture when they are evermore hypersexualized. By that I mean, society has already assigned an overtly sexual identity to both Black men and gay men. Black gay men have the potential to carry the brunt doubly. It also appears that when a gay boy (sorry, boi?) is going through a dry spell or has some preconceived notion of what lies in the Black man's pants, he is more than willing to use him to explore his little experiment in whether or not he "likes chocolate." Some Black men glory in the revelation that everyone seems to think their dick is huge. In a culture where sexual voyeurism is normalized, the nuances of socio-sexual taboos must be examined. Why are these normalized sexual roles being placed upon Black gay male bodies and how have some men become complacent in these roles?

The "mandingo" is a racial stereotype that has followed Black men throughout the century. He is sexually subservient and plagued by negative sexual imagery. Keep in mind his servitude is not determined solely through submission. He can be sexually subservient through acting aggressively to penetrate and enact a "rape scene" that appeals to his partners racialized desires. Or he can be sexually submissive and be dominated by the penetrator. Either way, his sexual subservience is anticipated.

The "mandingo" does not only live in the minds of the external. Some Black gay men have internalized this mindset so much so that their sexuality is consumed by the myths that precede them--myths about their member, their (hyper)sexuality, their sexual preferences (and why has the "n-word" found its way into interracial sexual exchanges?). It becomes detrimental when a person's entire being is consumed by their sexuality and nothing more, suggesting a person is merely a body. It is reductive and ignores the complexities of what makes the individual whole. When a person only finds value in their existence through sexual realms, it ignores and denies all of the other valuable attributes of their personhood.

While I recognize this is going to be an unpopular argument precisely for the fact that no community likes their dirty laundry aired out, I've watched as these issues plague our communities. Using people on the basis of sex without at least offering them the dignity or respect of acknowledging their humanity (or remembering their name) is a disease we are suffering from--alluding to the fact that you'll fuck a Black guy, you just won't take him to meet your family or friends. This is not a criticism of casual sex; instead, it is the methods of how these actions are carried out that is the problem. There was a time when being caught in interracial sexual acts would have gotten you killed. How much better have things gotten if it is now our souls that are dying, our relationships with one another? Violence is often discussed in its physical manifestations but rarely addressed in terms of the spiritual brutality many of us face.

We've internalized a "Birth of a Nation" mentality whereby all Black men are depicted as sexual predators here to dominate and penetrate the Anglo. Don't believe me? Check any porn site or the articles being written about it. As a matter of fact, google "gay interracial" and see if you can find anything that isn't sexual in nature. Let's be real: porn is very much a part of our culture. I have plenty of friends who can name tons of porn "actors". So we watch as Black men dominate, aggressively penetrate, and gang rape some "poor innocent white boy" and I'm supposed to believe that's not playing a role in the way we interact cross-culturally? HA!

There is also the fact we've created a culture where narcissism runs rampant--thinking everyone wants your goodies. Is there some unwritten rule that Black men (under the guise of Black hypermasculinity) are all tops (penetrator)? Plenty of men who are otherwise tops/vers tops, want to bottom for Black men...and are not timid about how they choose to communicate it. It is my belief that this relates directly to the stereotypical assumptions made about Black male sexuality and potency.

What I love about the politics of versatility: 1) no one wants to allow people to identify as such because it's easier to box gay men into the top/bottom dichotomy 2)everyone's decisions on when to "switch" are informed by something different. 3) you watch as gay men run away from being labeled a bottom (misogyny is alive and well) so they claim to be versatile instead. But even when we do operate in the dichotomy of top/bottom, why do I see so many individuals become complacent in racist, sexualized roles whereby sex becomes all about domination? Is this part of a larger conversation on sex and power? Either way, the point of the story is not all Black men are tops nor are they the mandingo your porn mandates them to be.

Men of color are not sexual, erotic, or "exotic" objects here for the disposal of other (read: white) men's sexual aims. Men of color are not to be reduced by another's ignorance surrounding intercultural exchanges, including the sexual. For the record, if a man of color permits you to mistreat him, that does not make it acceptable. In the same token, just because your friend says its okay for you to project racial slurs upon them doesn't make that right either.

As I've battled having to fight stereotypes about my own identities and choices, I've since realized it is symptomatic of a larger issue: ignorance. Who I choose to be with or sleep with is my business. If anyone should know that, it's queer communities. So if you'd like to reduce me to "chasing chocolate", "only dating Black men" or whatever else...you've got some issues to work through, honey.

Interracial dating, sex, exchanges should not be thought of as places of "racial reconciliation" where some type of healing takes place. By that I mean, just because you fucked a Black man does not mean you're any less racist than you were before.

Johnathan Fields is a DePaul University alum with a B.A. in African & Black Diaspora Studies and Philosophy. His areas of interest include: media representations of race, gender, and sexuality in popular culture, Black feminist theory, Diasporic literature and critical race theory. He is also the latest addition to this site's family of contributors. For more information, visit www.adventuresofaboxcutter.com