bodhi tree swaying

Delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely …

(Abridged)

Frederick Douglass July 5, 1852

1 Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens: The task before me is one which requires much previous thought and study for its proper performance. The papers and placards say, that I am to deliver a 4th [of] July oration. This certainly sounds large, and out of the common way, for it is true that I have often had the privilege to speak in this beautiful Hall, and to address many who now honor me with their presence, the fact is, ladies and gentlemen, the distance between this platform and the slave plantation, from which I escaped, is considerable-and the difficulties to be overcome in getting from the latter to the former, are by no means slight. That I am here to-day is, to me, a matter of astonishment as well as of gratitude.

2 This, for the purpose …

From the NYT:

In studies over the past few years, researchers have demonstrated how quickly trust can build in the right circumstances. To build a close relationship from scratch, psychologists have two strangers come together in four hourlong sessions. In the first, the two share their answers to a list of questions, from the innocuous “Would you like to be famous? In what way?” to the more serious, like “If you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be?”

In the second session, the pair competes against other pairs in a variety of timed parlor games. In the third, they talk about a variety of things, including why they are proud to be a member of their ethnic group, whether Latino, Asian, white or black. Finally, they take turns wearing a blindfold, while their partner gives instructions for navigating a maze.

Trivial as

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There was a lot of coverage a few weeks back about research showing that people with a tendency to experience anxiety are more likely to favor right-wing political views. To put it bluntly, Republicans scare easily.

That’s amply demonstrated in a post that the excellent Mahablog links to, in which Jonah Goldberg purports to write from 2012, reporting on Obama’s failed presidency. It’s a bizarre, even hysterical, piece of writing in which, apparently, Obama’s administration will be damaged by Biden making bizarre statements:

…he told the Russian foreign minister he’d “rather punch a nun in the throat” than cooperate on an Iranian nuclear deal, the Obama administration knew they had a problem on their hands.

The strange comments and behavior kept coming: at an international summit on child poverty, he accused the Dalai Lama of issuing a “brain fart,” he phoned Supreme Court

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When I told a British friend about the email that was sent out last week from the Pennsylvania GOP, likening voting for Barack Obama to the Holocaust, and falsely alleging that Mr. Obama “taught members of Acorn to commit voter registration fraud,’” he was flabbergasted. In Britain, he pointed out, the newspapers would be all over this. In the US such outrage is reserved for $200 haircuts. The story seemed to have no traction here.

Anyway, here’s another outrageous email from a GOP leader, this time in Florida, where it’s of great concern that so many black people are coming out to vote, and that this might result in a black president. I wonder if this will get as little attention as the Pennsylvania story?

Temple Terrace, Florida – The long lines of early voters at the Temple Terrace Library have

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…although presumably if I was a law enforcement officer with a gun I’d get some training.

Anyway, in Nick Kristof’s article on unconscious racism today he links to a “shooter effect” test on the University of Chicago website. The photograph above is not me, in case you’re wondering. It’s from the “shooter effect” test, which is a computer game where you have to make a snap decision whether to fire at an armed man or holster your weapon for an unarmed man (it’s all men). Some of the men are black and some are white. The test is to see whether there is an unconscious tendency to shoot people of one race more quickly than another, or to shoot them more often when they’re unarmed.

Here are my results:

Your Score: 70
Average reaction time:
Black Armed:862.44ms
Black Unarmed:931.72ms
White Armed:775.8ms
White Unarmed:1381.16ms

So first off, I’m crappy at …

I just want to praise Daniel Zubairi and other brave Republicans who stood up to a pair of racists at a McCain rally. It’s good to see people taking a stand against this kind of ignorance and hatred.

(Afterthought: It’s ironic that the McCain campaign wouldn’t let Zubairi be interviewed on TV after this incident. Zubairi is an asset to his party, but I guess the McCain team would rather not address racism head on and may be embarrassed at the idea of having a Muslim speaking on their behalf).

I was suspicious yesterday about the story that a McCain campaigner had allegedly been attacked and the letter “B” carved on her face because her mugger was infuriated at seeing a McCain/Palin sticker on her car. Of course there are nuts out there and anything could happen, but in the picture of the woman’s face it was peculiar that the supposed vicious attacker had been careful not to cause any actual bleeding. It would be peculiar if, carving a letter into a struggling person’s face with a knife, the injuries amounted to no more than a superficial scratch with no bleeding whatsoever.

Here’s the picture.

And here’s what appears to be the truth:

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ? Police say a campaign volunteer confessed to making up a story that a mugger attacked her and cut the letter B in her face after seeing her McCain bumper

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