Teabaggers Losing Their Damned Minds

Not that many of them had much of one to lose to begin with, but the teabaggers are now resorting to the T word to express their racist Republistoked anger at the passage of health care reform.

Terrorism.

Let's call these people what they are and what Rep. Bart Stupak rightfully called them. Domestic terrorists.

I don't like and have zero tolerance or respect for the Tea Klux Klan, especially after last weekend's disgusting display protesting a bill that will prevent the insurance companies from denying them coverage due to a nebulous list of preexisting conditions.

The Tea Klux Klan is 75% Republican and monoracial. It's an Astroturfed movement that claims it's not racist, but hurl racist and homophobic slurs at African-American, Latino/a, Jewish and gay legislators. Your protest rallies are monoracial affairs filled with racist signs showing your breathtaking levels of miseducation to the world.

And note to Dale Robertson, founder of the teabaggers, 'nigger' is not spelled with an 'a' in it.

What we have is the spectacle of white people behaving badly, just like their pointed hood wearing, Confederate flag waving parents and grandparents did the last time we engaged in passing ground breaking progressive legislation in the 60's.

Nullification didn't work then, and it won't work in the 2K10's.

Turn off the Fox Noise, right wing talk radio and read a fracking book that's not penned by Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, Sarah Palin or Rush Limbaugh.

As Parliament-Funkadelic once sang, free your mind and your ass will follow. But if you want to follow the GOP off the cliff of irrelevance, be our guests.

But we're putting you peeps on notice that we're going to fight harder for our vision of an America that works for everybody who lives here. We are not going to allow large numbers of stupid people to vote us back to the 19th century.

Not this time, in 2012, 2014, not ever.

Been there, done that.

So I'm A 'Violent Racist', Eh?

I surfed over to Transadvocate and checked out an interesting post by Marti Abernathey.

She asserts that because Dr. Jillian Todd Weiss dares to speak the truth to power about the inaction on ENDA, the trans sellouts working with Gay, Inc to 'keep the trannies in line' and without civil rights coverage have already or will soon start a whisper campaign to discredit her inside the Beltway.

I rolled over on the floor laughing when I read what was said about moi in this whisper campaign:

Monica Roberts – violent racist

Yeah, right. Seems like I had no problem wandering into whatever congressional office I wanted to visit in 2007 and 2009.

As a matter of fact I got enough intel from the 2007 visits to the Hill that I sounded the alarm along with the people that were smeared about the disturbing news we'd heard that trans people were about to get cut out of the then-trans inclusive ENDA.

We dissenters were called 'crazy' by NCTE leadership and the claim went out that trans inclusion in ENDA was a 'slam dunk'.

Until October 2007 and that slam dunk clanged off the back of the Congressional rim.

To the person or persons who started that inside the beltway smear, this is what a 'violent racist' looks like:



Funny, they look like you and share YOUR ethnic heritage.

Just one point of correction on the whisper campaign as it pertains to moi, I’m also the ‘uppity n*****r’ as well as being labeled ‘racist’.

Better than being a vanilla flavored sellout to the Trans community any day.

By the way smearmongers, racism = prejudice plus power, and that's something you should have retained from Sociology 101.

I got better things to do than waste my valuable time and money trying to work with people who are kissing their oppressor's behinds and are too clueless, fearful, lazy and stupid to do anything about it.

When you're ready to pass some legislation that will help all segments of the GLBT community and not the 'we're just like you' neo-Mattachine crowd, call me.

Then again, maybe I should show up for an NCTE lobby day with an Afro, a black leather outfit and wear a black beret while I hold up a black gloved clenched fist and shout 'all power to the people' over a megaphone.

Do Klan Hoods Come With The Uniforms, Too?

There's a new basketball league gearing up to start play this summer.

If you're a ball player of color, don't bother trying out for any of its teams.

The All America Basketball Alliance wants to start play in twelve cities later this June with teams comprised of all-white, American-born men.

The Grand Wizard, oops, commissioner of the league Don 'Moose' Lewis released this statement on Martin Luther King Day.

"It has come to the attention of the principals of the (All-American Basketball Alliance) that [W]hite basketball players are essentially 'shut out' of conventional professional basketball due to the proliferation of non-organized play on the court." "With players on other professional teams carrying guns, attacking fans in the stands, and going through the motions of playing the game, fundamentally sound [W]hite players are a vanishing species."

"Fans have spoken to the AABA asking to restore on court sanity to the game of basketball. Their pleas are our mission. Only players that are natural born United States citizens with both parents of Caucasian race are eligible to play in the league."

The Atlanta-based league will operate as a single-entity owning all of its teams, and is looking for local contacts to pay $10,000 to become a "licensee" in one of 12 cities throughout the Southeast.

No truth to the rumor that Dixie will be played instead of the national anthem before every game and Confederate flags will be hung in AABA home arenas.

Lewis is already trying to throw up the 'I'm not racist' defense.

Lewis was interviewed by Scott Michaux of The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, and denied his new league has anything to do with racism. He asserted it’s more about restoring the game to the way it was before it was saturated with African Americans.

Yeah, right.

"It's because of the fact that natural athleticism of people of color is different," Lewis said. "They can make up for their shortfall in fundamentals with their natural athleticism. And coaches look for the quickest way to win, so they go for natural athleticism instead of the fundamentals from a White player. Is it a coaching problem? To a certain degree, but a lot of it is the culture.

"I know there's bad apples of every color, but like my wife says, let the numbers speak for themselves,” he continued. “Turn on the local TV news and who do you see on there? Facts are facts. Now, imagine the safety and quality of play at games where there's none of that. Anyone can be a star."

He pointed to White professional players – i.e., “guys like Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash, (Dirk is the last great White hope)" – who he said exemplify the characteristics he’s talking about.

"Look at Larry Bird," he continued. "He was a very good player. But if he was a Black player, he wouldn't be considered in the same league as Michael Jordan. But he was White and entertaining. That's why people liked him."

Um dude, Steve Nash is Canadian, and Nowitzki is German.

You're not racist? Please. You sounded like Jimmy 'The Greek' Snyder, Al Campanis and Adolph Rupp all rolled into one disgusting body. There are more than a few coaches, past and present who would vehemently disagree with everything you just said.

B-ball history lesson for your clueless behind as well. Basketball at the beginning of the 20th century was dominated by Jewish players. People who looked like you said the same foul crap about them that you're regurgitating now about African American players.

I wonder if the logo for the new league will include a Klan hood or a swastika?

Can A Media Sistah Do Her Job Without Being Labeled Trans, Ugly Or An Affirmative Action Hire?

When I'm writing sometimes I'll flip on the TV and tune it to the Weather Channel. I love the two sister on-air weather presenters Betty Davis and Vivian Brown. Betty is usually doing the weekend on-air weather reports from 7 AM-11 AM EST while Vivian is on-air during the workweek.

I also like checking out their fashion styles as well as I'm finding out what the weather's going to be like here in Da Ville and the surrounding region.

So being the curious person I am, while pondering the backgrounds of my fave sistah weather casters, I Googled their names to see what would come up.

I was not surprised to discover that these ladies both have it going on.

In Betty's case she's a native Georgian and mother of two children who graduated magna cum laude from Spelman with an English degree. She has a BS in meteorology from Mississippi State and her seals of approval from the American Meteorological Society and National Weather Association.

Vivian is a Jackson, MS native who was a world class track athlete during her time at Jackson State University, where she earned her BS in Meteorology.

She's also a mother of two, has her seals of approval from the American Meteorological Society and National Weather Association, is the Weather Channel expert on tropical weather, a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc,, an entrepreneur who started a maternity clothing store in the ATL that features professional attire, a tennis buff and is a member of the Jackson State University Sports Hall of Fame.

I also ran across as I Googled both ladies transphobic, racist and sexist comments as well in this 2005 airliners.net thread and here about Ms. Davis and this one in my Hattiesburg.com about Ms. Brown.

Once again, this is an example of the ongoing centuries old attacks on the beauty and images of African descended women. You also have factored into this situation news and media outlets using young blonde weathercasters to add sex appeal to their newscast and draw viewers.

Some Weather Channel viewers drool over people like Alexandra Steele and have constant debates over who is the most beautiful woman on the channel. Give you two guesses whose names don't enter in that conversation.

Betty Davis and Vivian Brown are two accomplished, intelligent, and talented sisters who stylishly present the weather information we need to get through our days and work weeks. It's obvious they have the talent to do so and The Weather Channel is happy and lucky to have them. CNN hired away the other sister who used to work at the channel in Eboni Deon.

I'd damned sure be happy to stand in these two beautiful ladies pumps, and you folks who are insulting these ladies need to buy a vowel and get a clue about gender identity issues.

You also need to deal with the reality that beautiful women come in a wider variety of shades, ethnic backgrounds, body builds and skin tones besides petite, blonde, thin and white.

Barack Obama...Ferraro says, a plus to be Black. An "oreole", perhaps?

Obama breaks "black ceiling"...


A few months ago, I speculated in a post that when it came to voting in the privacy of the polling booths, Americans would be inclined to vote for their own - women for the female candidate, blacks for the Afro-American hopeful, white men for the best Caucasian prospect.

There has been a lot of controversy under the bridge since then - as voters, pundits, and the media alike - tip-toed around the race issue, in particular; usually with disastrous results!

Funny that, a large percentage of the populace became color blind almost overnight - afraid to be labeled racist? You bet!

Or, have Americans suddenly perceived Obama in a different light? Less menacing, not the wild card they expected to encounter on the campaign trail, eh - do 'ya think?

"Saturday Night Live" was recently criticized for hiring a white comedian to impersonate Barack Obama in a hilarious controversial skit which took delicious pokes at both the Senator and Hillary Clinton alike. Some complained quite vigorously that because there was a writers strike on - which stalled production for weeks - that the casting office had ample opportunity to audition for a black fella' to inhabit the politician's skin.

But, wasn't that part of the jab? Weren't the producers subtly suggesting that Obama is an "oriole" - black on the outside, lily white within?

In retrospect, his unique background - his childhood experience, in particular - may have somehow made him more palpable to American voters in the mainstream, I expect.

Curiously, in a recent poll this past week, one in four whites admitted that race was important to their vote, while four out of ten blacks confessed to the same.

A hat off to the honest voter with the gumption to tell it like it is!

Undoubtedly, there are quite a few voters inclined to be influenced by the race card, cowering in the wings, who lack the spine to fess up.

Meanwhile, in the past couple of days, there was a startling new turn of events on the American political scene.

Geraldine Ferraro shattered the "black ceiling" when she boldly asserted that the reason Obama was fairing so well with American voters was BECAUSE he is Black!

What a switcheroo!

For decades, the widely-held general consensus has been that - "black will hold you back" - in respect to politics, gaining entry to the rarefied enclaves of the American social elite, you name it.

In Ferraro's eyes, skin tone is sure to land you at the top of the heap!

Of course, from the sidelines, the critics cried out in angry unison, "Racist".

But when you reflect on the matter, is it?

Whenever we try to fathom the success of an individual, don't we generally take an insightful, probing glance into all the facets of the unfolding scenario that make it so?

Here, the truth is difficult to swallow!

I say, get real America!

Good on Ferraro, for sticking to her - um - guns.

Put that in your pipe, and smoke it!

Jena 6 Protest

I am so proud of our people this morning. I caught parts of the Jena 6 protest yesterday on CNN and took time to fire off comments to the CNN website.

As I saw our people gather in Jena, assemble in front of the LaSalle Parish Courthouse, visit Jena High School and watched 'the Revs' and others speak I found myself wishing I could have been part of this history making event. We had a bus full of people that left from Louisville to go there, but I had to work last night.

It was beautiful to see 50,000 people peacefully assembling to march for justice. The best part of it was seeing all the young people that were involved. It brought tears to my eyes.

This is an opportunity for parents to have a teachable moment for their kids about our history in this country and the civil rights movement.



We must constantly remind our kids (and some whites as well) that 400 years of racism did not magically disappear in the 60's and 70's. The Forces of Intolerance are always at work and there are Jena's everywhere along with the attitudes that created them.

My hope and prayer is that our young people's involvement in social justice issues doesn't stop with this case. I hope that our youth and the participants realized that our fight for justice as African-Americans is an ongoing battle and that they must do their part to continue 'Fighting the Power' to the best of their abilities until Dr. King's dream is an unalterable reality.

CBS to Don Imus: You're Fired!

The hammer came down on Don Imus today as CBS cancelled his radio show.

"There has been much discussion of the effect language like this has on our young people, particularly young women of color trying to make their way in this society," CBS President and Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves said in announcing the decision. "That consideration has weighed most heavily on our minds as we made our decision."

The things that weigh most heavily on my mind about this situation is that Bernard McGuirk, the sidekick that started the whole mess is still there while Imus is gone. McGuirk should've been the first one collecting unemployment.

I was pissed the conservatives tried to shift the discussion from racist and sexist behavior and the hurt and pain the comments caused these women to attacking Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton and rappers.

Maybe they didn't want peeps to make the connection to their homeboys Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage and crew who instigated, nurtured, get paid and perpetuate this coarse culture of racist shock jock talk. I was also bothered as I watched the coverage unfold on the various networks over the last few days that White callers and people e-mailing various outlets started complaining that Black folks were making 'too much' of this issue.

Excuse me?

I guarantee if a nationally syndicated African-American jock like Tom Joyner or a Latino DJ disrespected your daughters or nieces we'd still be hearing about it for months ad nauseum in the media.

I'm not popping champagne corks over this. Yeah, Don Imus was a serial offender in terms of disrespecting African-Americans but he wasn't alone. I believe Imus wasn't aware of the seething anger building over the last few months in the African-American community. We saw repeated incidents continuing to pile up of Whites disrespecting African-Americans followed up by weak half-hearted apologies, disengenuous denials or attempted blame shifting to the African-American community instead of taking responsibility for their actions.

Those incidents range from the ongoing Shirley Q. Liquor controversy in the GLBT community, college students in various locales having racist parties on Martin Luther King Day, right-wing talk radio hosts using racist rhetoric to GOP legislators using racist terms or telling us to 'get over slavery'. Imus' April 4 comment about college-educated sistahs was the spark that lit the powerkeg in our community. We're simply sick and tired of peeps dissing us and feeling confident that they can get away with it.

So what's next?

“The action today does not solve the problem,” E. Faye Williams, chairwoman of the National Congress of Black Women, told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “Imus is not the first to denigrate black women, and he will not be the last. We can not allow his firing to be the end of what happens. It’s not over because CBS says that it is over.”

I hope it's crystal clear to Whites AND Blacks that this type of disrespect to our community and our women will NOT be tolerated. Now it's time for the rappers and other right-wing radio jocks to get the message as well.

Imus Calls Rutgers Women's Team 'Nappy Headed Hos'

Don Imus is in the hotseat after he, his executive producer and a sports reporter dissed the Rutgers University women's team during his April 4 MSNBC simulcast radio show 'Imus In The Morning'.

After executive producer Bernard McGuirk referred to them as 'hardcore hos' and also compared the two teams to “the Jigaboos vs. the Wannabes” from the Spike Lee School Daze movie, Imus chimed in with his comments.

From the April 4 edition of MSNBC's Imus in the Morning:

IMUS: So, I watched the basketball game last night between -- a little bit of Rutgers and Tennessee, the women's final.

ROSENBERG: Yeah, Tennessee won last night -- seventh championship for [Tennessee coach] Pat Summitt, I-Man. They beat Rutgers by 13 points.

IMUS: That's some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos and --

McGUIRK: Some hard-core hos.

IMUS: That's some nappy-headed hos there. I'm gonna tell you that now, man, that's some -- woo. And the girls from Tennessee, they all look cute, you know, so, like -- kinda like -- I don't know.

McGUIRK: A Spike Lee thing.

IMUS: Yeah.

McGUIRK: The Jigaboos vs. the Wannabes -- that movie that he had.

IMUS: Yeah, it was a tough --

McCORD: Do The Right Thing.

McGUIRK: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

IMUS: I don't know if I'd have wanted to beat Rutgers or not, but they did, right?

ROSENBERG: It was a tough watch. The more I look at Rutgers, they look exactly like the Toronto Raptors.

IMUS: Well, I guess, yeah.

RUFFINO: Only tougher.

McGUIRK: The [Memphis] Grizzlies would be more appropriate.



The National Association of Black Journalists called for an apology from Imus, encouraging all journalists to boycott his show until an apology is issued.

“Has he lost his mind?” said NABJ President Bryan Monroe. “Those comments were beyond offensive. Imus needs to be fired. Today.”

Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer was also incensed by the comments about her team, which has eight African-American and two white members.

"I am deeply saddened and angered by Mr. Imus' statements," said Rutgers coach C. Vivian Stringer. "To serve as a joke of Mr. Imus in such an insensitive manner creates a wedge and makes light of these classy individuals, both as women and as women of color."

In a joint statement, NCAA President Myles Brand and Rutgers President Richard McCormick condemned Imus' slur.

"It is unconscionable that anyone would use the airways to utter such disregard for the dignity of human beings who have accomplished much and deserve great credit," their statement read.

Imus apologized on his Friday show.

The Dred Scott Case-150 Years Later

150 years ago this month the Supreme Court ruled in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case.

On March 6, 1857 Chief Justice Roger B. Taney made his famous declaration that '"beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect."

Hell, sometimes I think that many white Americans still operate under that premise.

When I see the way that African-Americans have been attacked since 1866 by white hooded terrorists, had our neighbohoods burned by white mobs, people lynched, our women raped, our images distorted, history and contributions to this country ignored and had the legal system unfaily stacked against us, I haven't seen much to change my perception.

A Rebuttal to Kenneth Eng's 'Why I Hate Blacks' Column

By Kenneth Eng
published in AsianWeek February 23, 2007

TransGriot note: This is the text of the AsianWeek newspaper column written by Kenneth Eng that caused major controversy when it was published on February 23. After coming under fire from African-American and Asian groups, editor Ted Fang has apologized for it and announced that Eng is no longer a contributing writer. My comments will be boldfaced.

Here is a list of reasons why we should discriminate against blacks, starting from the most obvious down to the least obvious.

*Blacks hate us. Every Asian who has come across them knows that they take almost every opportunity to hurl racist remarks at us. In my experience I would say about 90 percent of blacks I have met regardless of age or environment, poke fun at the very sight of an Asian. Furthermore, their activity in the media proves their hatred. Rush Hour, Exit Wounds, Hot 97, et cetera.

For somebody that graduated from NYU, you are breathtakingly ignorant to paint an entire race of people with a stereotypical brush based on two movies and a rap radio station as you did in your recent February 23 column. (Personally I prefer classic R&B and jazz myself.)

*Contrary to media depictions I would argue that blacks are weak willed. They are the only race that has been enslaved for 300 years. It's unbelievable it took them that long to fight back. On the other hand we slaughtered the Russians in the Russo-Japanese War.

I guess you forgot about the story of Joseph Cinque and the Amistad revolt? That wasn't an isolated incident. Many slave ship voyages didn't get too far away from the African coastline before the rebellions started. There were far more successful slave rebellions and revolts than the 'happy darkie' pro-slavery revisionist forces care to elaborate on and the first one happened in 1733. They feared slave rebellions from 1792 onward. Haiti's slaves liberating themselves from French rule in 1803 made them even more 'scurred' of us replicating the feat on US shores.

I see you're also clueless about Harriet Tubman, the Underground Railroad and the various ingenious ways that African-Americans escaped from plantations. They fought for their freedom in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.

While were on the war tip, ever heard of the Buffalo Soldiers? The 761st Tank Battalion AKA the Black Panthers? The Tuskegee Airmen? The 54th Massachusetts Regiment? You desperately need to hop the subway and spend some time at the Schomburg Institute.

*Blacks are easy to coerce. This is proven by the fact that so many of them, including Rev. Al Sharpton tend to be Christians. Yet at the same time they spend much of their time whining about how much they hate the 'whites that oppressed them.'
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Christianity the religion that whites forced upon them?

And in which one of your science-fiction universes did you come up with that asinine statement? I'm tired of peeps like you dismissing our very real historical experiences in this country as 'whining'. The Christianity that the slavemasters forced on us was infused with our own religious experiences and traditions we brought with us from Africa. From that Christianity came some of our greatest leaders in the late 19th and 20th century.

*Blacks don't get it. I know it's a blunt and crass assessment but it's true. When I was in high school, I recall a class debate in which one half of the class was chosen to defend black slavery and the other half was chosen to defend liberation. Disturbingly, blacks on the prior side viciously defended slavery as well as Christianity. They say if you don't study history you are condemned to repeat it. In high school I only remember one black student ever attending my honors and AP courses. And that student was caught cheating.

Kenneth, what I don't get is your disjointed rambling about some obscure high school debate and what connection it has with African-Americans in general. But then again racists were never known to have logical linear thinking processes.

If you didn't see any African-Americans in your honors or AP classes, then you must have attended school in the 'burbs or went to a private one. I was in gifted and talented classes in junior and senior high along with many of my friends. Education was stressed in mine and many other households in my neighborhood.

George Santayana was right. If you don't study the past you are condemned to repeat it. That's why we just spent 28 days commemorating our history. African-Americans are painfully familiar with that statement more than anyone else in this country because we've seen the effects of neglected or ignored history disproportionately impact our community. For example, our experiences during Reconstruction in the late 19th century have eerily replicated themselves in the late 20th-early 21st century.

It is rather troubling that they are treated as heroes, but then again whites will do anything to defend them.

And it is rather troubling that this kind of virulent racism is alive and well in the early 21st century, especially in someone who is a 21 year old college graduate. I'm even more angered over the fact that you chose Black History Month to write such disgusting tripe.

We are heroes, Kenneth. I'm descended from peeps that survived The Middle Passage. Despite violent opposition, nattering naysayers and countless obstacles placed in our paths over the last 400 years that would have broken less sturdy peoples, to quote Maya Angelou, 'and still we rise.'

Viola Desmond-Canada's Rosa Parks

Almost ten years before that fateful December 1, 1955 day that Rosa Parks sat down on a Montgomery, AL bus that was headed home and jump started a movement, Viola Desmond did the same for African-Canadians.

Viola Desmond (1914-1965) was a young Halifax businesswoman and beautician who owned and operated a beauty school there. On November 8th, 1946, she was on her way to Sydney, NS for a meeting when she got caught in a blizzard in New Glasgow, NS and her car broke down.

When a mechanic told her he couldn't fix the problem until the next day she found a place to stay for the night. Desmond decided to pass the time with a movie at the local Roseland Theatre. She asked for a ticket for house seats, but the teller sold her a ticket for the balcony, which was where Black people had to sit in that town.

When she sat in the lower "Whites Only" house seats, the manager ordered her to sit in the balcony, which was designated for Black patrons. When she refused, he called the police and she was arrested. Desmond was dragged from the theater and thrown in jail overnight. Bruised and angry, she sat upright all night and for the next 12 hours on the hard jail bench while wearing her white gloves.

In the morning she was charged by the magistrate with "attempting to defraud the Federal Government" based on her refusal to pay the one cent amusement tax difference between the 3 cents charged to those sitting in the balcony and the 2 cents charged to those sitting downstairs. Even though she had offered to pay the difference in ticket price, she was convicted of failing to pay the tax on the downstairs ticket. After a short trial, Viola was sentenced to a fine of $20 plus court costs and 30 days in prison.

Viola Desmond's arrest galvanized the Afro-Canadian community into action. The new Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NSAACP), founded only a year earlier by William and Pearleen Oliver, raised the money to pay her fine and fight her conviction. Carrie Best, the founder of Nova Scotia's first Black owned and operated newspaper publicized her story. Best was familiar with Desmond's situation. She'd been thrown out of the Roseland Theater herself four years earlier for refusing to sit in the balcony and unsuccessfully filed a damage suit against the theater's management.

Desmond's lawyer took the case to the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, but her appeal lost on a technicality. She reappealed the case and won on a technicality. The case helped topple segregation laws in Nova Scotia and the provincial government repealed them in 1954.

Racist College Parties Causing Drama

TheCarolinaChannel.com
11:38 a.m. EST January 30, 2007
GREENVILLE, S.C. - A party held by some Clemson University students two weeks ago is causing controversy after pictures taken at the event ended up on the Internet. Some students say it was just for fun. Others say that it was racist.

The party was held the day before the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. The theme of the party was "Living the Dream," but some Clemson students are calling it a nightmare.

Pictures of the party were posted on facebook.com, showing at least one person in black-face paint, with others dressed in knitted caps and jerseys and some girls with stuffing padding their pants to make their behinds look larger. There's an image of party-goers holding 40-ounce bottles of malt liquor.

Clemson officials said that the images were taken at an off-campus party thrown by some university students.

University administrators said the behavior at the party is unacceptable and they met with hundreds of angry students on Monday night to discuss the situation.

Officials also said that they plan to meet with those who attended the party and eventually bring the two groups together.

Students who planned the party and who were willing to talk to WYFF News 4 did not want their identities revealed because of fear of harassment

One student said, "We have a lot of theme parties where you dress up and have fun. We decided we'd have a "gangsta" party for fun. You know, the gangsta's like the hip hop culture. So we dressed up. We did not know it would offend so many people...and we did. We feel so bad about it. We realize we can't begin to apologize to all the people we offended."

Ranneice McDonald, another Clemson student, said she saw nothing funny about it.

"People painted themselves black. Put fake butts inside their pants to signify the big booty black-girl thing. Fake gold teeth in their mouths caps and jerseys -- depicted us as wearing such things as that are disgusting to me. It's disgusting. It makes me sick to my stomach," McDonald said.

"I was hurt that there were people who think that it's OK," she said.

School officials said that some of the students who threw the party approached them in an effort to make things right once they heard people criticizing the party.

The students involved told WYFF News 4 that they threw the party to show unity, and they apologized for the damage that they have done.

Tuesday morning, Clemson President James Barker sent an e-mail to students addressing the situation. (Full text of e-mail.) Clemson is expected to issue public statement later Tuesday.

Theme Party Not The Country's Only One

The Web site The Smoking Gun reported that similar parties were held at both the University of Connecticut and Tarleton State University in Texas. To see the reports on the other parties, click on the links:


University of Connecticut party
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0125072uconn1.html


Tarleton State University Party
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0125071mlk1.html