Tag Archives: Race relations

RIP Michael Jackson

The King of Pop

The King of Pop

Michael Jackson died today at the age of 50 from cardiac arrest.  This one belongs here because of Michael’s extraordinary accomplishments in race relations with his music and dancing.  Along with the Bee Gees, he was one of the very first pop star names that I ever heard.  I was in LA at the time, and one of my third grade classmates lived within walking distance of Michael’s Encino home.  He told me this fact within minutes of meeting me; people were proud just to be around him.  Michael represented well, he changed the world, and as Al Sharpton said, “no controversy will erase the historic impact.”  CNN describes it well:

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That Gravitational Pull

Sandra Day O'Connor being sworn in, 1981

Sandra Day O'Connor being sworn in, 1981

The NY Times had a good article on how minority judges change the dynamics of how a committee operates.  They start with Thurgood Marshall, who was the first non-white male Supreme Court Justice, and then they move to talk about Ginsburg and O’Connor.  The article discusses how the mere presence of a minority changes the way the club operates.  Even Scalia noted the influence.

But the other justices did get to know Justice Marshall, and even the more conservative ones acknowledged that his very presence exerted a gravitational pull more powerful than his single vote.

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"There is a black man in my house."

I saw this amazing story on CNN this morning.  A woman’s home had been burglarized before, so she set up an internet webcam to monitor her home.  When she pulled up the live feed from work one morning, she saw two guys robbing her house.  She dialed 911 and said, “I’m watching my home on live monitor, and there is a black man in my house, and he is robbing it.”

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The World Outside and the Post-Election Portland Fervor

Portland

Yesterday I drove to downtown Portland for a 7 pm Thymos meeting.  It was my first time out of the hospital since Tuesday when my daughter was born.  Usually eastbound traffic is bad around 4:30, terrible from 5 until around 5:45, and progressively better after that.  However, when I left my house around 6:30 yesterday, it was like rush hour.

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