Update: Commission penalizes swim club in Pennsylvania racism complaint

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/09/23/pennsylvania.swim.racism/
The Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission issued a finding of probable cause Tuesday that racism was involved in the decision last June by a suburban Philadelphia swim club to revoke privileges of a largely minority day care center.

The commission ordered monetary damages for humiliation and embarrassment and a civil penalty of not more than $50,000.

The decision noted that none of the club’s 155 paid members this year was African-American.

Last year, according to the decision, there were “179 paid memberships, none of whom were African American.”

In addition, the decision noted that in 2009, the Valley Club “made a concerted effort to expand the geographic range of its membership by engaging in a marketing campaign…. The Respondent efforts were mainly directed at areas with overwhelmingly Caucasian populations…. The Respondent made no effort to direct such marketing efforts at areas with significant African American populations….”

Buchanan on RACE: "We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude?"

Does Buchanan have any valid points?

A Few

 

 1

None - He's a racist teabagger and I have HAD it!!!

 

 1

This post makes my blood boil.

 

 1

Other (please comment)

 

 2

"Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America . Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to. This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands heard. And among them are these:

First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known. Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.

Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the ' 60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream. Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks -- with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas -- to advance black applicants over white applicants. Churches, foundations, civic groups, schools and individ uals all over America have donated their time and money to support soup kitchens, adult education, day care, retirement and nursing homes for blacks.

We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude??

Barack talks about new 'ladders of opportunity' for blacks. Let him go to Altoona ? And Johnstown , and ask the white kids in Catholic schools how many were visited lately by Ivy League recruiters handing out scholarships for 'deserving ' white kids.? Is white America really responsible for the fact that the crime and incarceration rates for African-Americans are seven times those of white America ? Is it really white America 's fault that illegitimacy in the African-American community has hit 70 percent and the black dropout rate from high schools in some cities has reached 50 percent?

Is that the fault of white America or, first and foremost, a failure of the black community itself?

As for racism, its ugliest manifestation is in interracial crime, and especially interracial crimes of violence. Is Barack Obama aware that while white criminals choose black victims 3 percent of the time, black criminals choose white victims 45 percent of the time?

Is Barack aware that black-on-white rapes are 100 times more common than the reverse, that black-on-white robberies were 139 times as common in the first three years of this decade as the reverse?

We have all heard ad nauseam from the Rev. Al about Tawana Brawley, the Duke rape case and Jena . And all turned out to be hoaxes. But about the epidemic of black assaults on whites that are real, we hear nothing.

Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago.

http://www.redcounty.com/sarasota/2009/02/buchanan-to-obama

Why we're talking about race - again

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=690926
The Democrats have lost the healthcare debate.

For months now, polls have been showing that Americans don't want the massive new government controls, regulations, taxes, and spending that Democrats are pushing.

Latest Gallup polling shows 60 percent saying that President Barack Obama's proposal will not expand health coverage without raising taxes on middle-class Americans and without affecting the current quality of healthcare.



Forty-three percent approve of how Obama is handling healthcare and 52 percent disapprove.

You would be hard pressed to find a Democrat or Republican who does not agree that we can improve how we deliver healthcare.

So the logical conclusion we'd expect now from well-intentioned people would be that we go back to square one. We do what Obama promised but never did -- have a truly open, bi-partisan discussion, with all ideas are on the table, to generate the best possible product for the American people.

Why is this not happening? Because it's not about healthcare. It's about ideology.

Despite claims from our Democrat administration that it wants civility, it does not. It wants control.

This nation is already torn apart ideologically. In the last four months, we've witnessed two cold-blooded, ideologically motivated murders. An abortion doctor shot in a church, and a pro-life demonstrator murdered in a drive-by shooting in front of a school.

There are fewer and fewer "self evident truths" about which we all agree.

The current charade to paint ideological differences with our president as racially motivated dangerously pours gasoline on the burning embers of our differences.

But this is what Democrats want. They have lost the healthcare debate on substance, so they want to make it emotional. They want to intimidate. And nothing intimidates and polarizes like race.

Continued at the link:
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Perspectives/Default.aspx?id=690926

Democrats Run from Carter on Race Comments

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/27248
First Dems ran from ACORN, now they are running from former President Carter.

They sure do scare easily, don't they?

The Wrong Side of History

The all-white crowd gathered round, seething with anger about change, which they felt was being shoved down their throats.

Some pumped demoralizing signs into the air, others shouted down anybody they didn’t feel were on their side. It didn’t take long for the name-calling and insults to commence.

“Somebody started yelling. Lynch her! Lynch her! I tried to see a friendly face somewhere in the crowd — someone who maybe could help. I looked into the face of an old woman and it seemed a kind face, but when I looked at her again, she spat on me.”

These are the words of Elizabeth Eckford. She is not talking about town hall protesters or tea baggers. Eckford, one of nine black students to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., was recalling how hundreds of white protesters — with backing from powerful politicians — tried to block her and eight other children from entering a public school in 1957.

They became known as the Little Rock Nine.

Protesters faced by the nine youths repeatedly warned that if blacks were allowed into “their schools” (much like the “their country” sentiment currently being echoed) it would harm their children.

It is ironic that thousands of angry, mostly white protesters converged on Washington last weekend at the same time I happened to be reading Cooper v. Aaron, a 1958 Supreme Court case stemming from the Little Rock Nine. The case is about Arkansas Democratic Gov. Orval Faubus and his refusal to obey federal orders to integrate the state’s schools. His defiance caused Republican President Dwight Eisenhower to send in federal troops to force Faubus to follow the law.

Chaos erupted. Vitriol and rowdy demonstrations spread not only throughout Arkansas, but across the country.

The nation was so polarized that it was nearly impossible for most people to foresee what many now take for granted: Integration would benefit the whole country, not just a particular demographic group.

We also now know that those screaming protesters were on the wrong side of history.

Some may ask what the Little Rock Nine story has to do with the current health care debate, especially when the apparent villain in the case was a Democrat and the hero, a Republican.

Here’s a clue: This column is not really about race. It’s about the way history repeats itself, and about our place in it.

Faubus’ opposition to allow black children to integrate Arkansas schools was politically motivated: He risked losing political support if he sanctioned integration, even though it was the right thing to do. Just like Republicans now risk losing political support if they show agreement with President Obama’s health care ideas — or any of his ideas, for that matter.

Click here to continue.

Another Tea Party Meltdown

This stuff is so common now that it has become a general rite of passage for these tea party people to fall over themselves in abject stupidity.

But I'm posting this anyway because it is way too funny to keep to myself!

Frank Schaeffer: Glenn Beck and The 9/12 Marchers: Subversives From Within

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/glenn-beck-and-the-912-ma_b_284387.html
Who are these people?! Where do they come from?! Ordinary Americans might wonder why anyone would stoop so low as to follow Glenn Beck, Fox News and Dick Armey (and their corporate sponsors masquerading as "FreedomWorks") as they organize their "9/12 March On Washington" to cynically exploit the 9/11 attack.

Patriotic Americans might question the organizer's aim to provide a media forum for dimwitted right wingers to scream "Liar!" "Socialist!" "Antichrist!" "Muslim!" "Death Panels!" "He's not an American!" and so on and on and on about the commander in chief charged with defending us from further attacks. And some people might even cry "shame on you!" to the more mainstream Republicans participating that include Dick Armey of FreedomWorks, as well as GOP Reps. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Mike Pence of Indiana, Tom Price of Georgia, and South Carolina GOP Sen. Jim DeMint.

Ordinary folks from Planet Earth may ask why the Republican Party, right-wing activists and members of the Religious Right seem so unreachable with mere facts let alone decency and decorum. (As the proud father of a US Marine who fought in Afghanistan, I'm particularly outraged that these people would exploit the 9/11 attacks after my son and others were prepared to give their lives in response to our enemies.)

As a former Religious Right leader, who was raised (and home-schooled by my Evangelical-leader parents, Francis and Edith Schaeffer) in the movement, let me explain just why the ordinary rules of decency don't apply to the right these days.

Let me also answer this question: Who are these people?

You have to finish reading this one:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/glenn-beck-and-the-912-ma_b_284387.html

Beck fan and 9/12 protest attendee explains why Obama will oppress white America.

H/T CatherineChicago

The reason behind this weekend's March on Washington in full detail.

Bush Spent More Than Obama - It Isn't About The Money, Is It?

Dear Friends,

Why did these Republicans NOT march on Washington last fall when Bush bailed out the Banks for Billions?

Because Bush isn't African-American!

Did you SEE any people of color in that crowd this afternoon?

700 Billion for Bush's first Bank Bailout:  He mortgaged our children and our children's children and no one marched!

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/banking/2008-09-21-rescue-plan_N.htm

Catherine

Obama Can't Thumb His Nose at the GOP, and Here's Why

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/earl-ofari-hutchinson/obama-cant-thumb-his-nose_b_278161.html
White voters.

On this day in 1994: 3000 U.S. militia lands on Haiti

Start:	Sep 19, '09
Location:	Port-au-Prince, Haiti

In mid-September 1994, with U.S. troops prepared to enter Haiti by force for Operation Uphold Democracy, President Bill Clinton dispatched a negotiating team led by former President Jimmy Carter to persuade the authorities to step aside and allow for the return of constitutional rule.

With intervening troops already airborne, top leaders agreed to step down. In October an exiled Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a charismatic Roman Catholic priest (and an on-again, off-again U.S. ally), was able to return to Haiti. Elections were held in June 1995. Aristide's coalition, the Lavalas (Waterfall) Political Organization, had a sweeping victory.

When Aristide's term ended in February 1996, René Préval, a prominent Aristide political ally, was elected President with 88% of the vote: this was Haiti's first ever transition between two democratically elected presidents.

But it's gone downhill in Haiti ever since.

On this day in 1989: Desmond Tutu leads biggest anti-apartheid protest march in South Africa

Start:	Sep 13, '09
Location:	Cape Town, South Africa

Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu and several other prominent anti-apartheid activists were among three dozen people arrested today as they marched toward police headquarters in Cape Town to protest the alleged beating of clergymen and church workers during an earlier anti-government protest.

In spite of a nationwide police crackdown on dissent, protests against segregated elections for Parliament continued to spread across the country as authorities issued new orders prohibiting marches and other demonstrations planned for the weekend.

Tutu, the 1984 Nobel peace laureate, led a defiance campaign against apartheid and national - whites only - elections.

One Less "Communist" In Obama's Ear...

Comrade Van Jones Resigns...

In a letter released just after midnight Saturday, Van Jones, President Obama's Special Advisor for Green Jobs at the Council on Environmental Quality resigned.

"On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me," Jones wrote. "They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide."

Jones said that he had "been inundated with calls - from across the political spectrum - urging me to "stay and fight. But I came here to fight for others, not for myself.  I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past.  We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future."

A best-selling author who has been heralded as an innovative thinker in the "green jobs" movement, Jones had come under fire from conservative media and lawmakers for past statements for which he apologized Thursday. 

The tipping point for the White House appeared to be Jones' admission earlier this week that he had signed a petition in 2004 calling for congressional hearings and an investigation by the New York Attorney General into "evidence that suggests high-level government officials may have deliberately allowed the September 11th attacks to occur."

In a statement issued Thursday evening Jones said of "the petition that was circulated today, I do not agree with this statement and it certainly does not reflect my views now or ever."

An administration source said Jones says he did not carefully review the language in the petition before agreeing to add his name.

But after that admission, asked if Jones enjoyed the confidence of the president, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs would only say on Fridat that Jones "continues to work in this administration."

A former civil rights activist in the San Francisco area, Jones told the East Bay Express in 2005 that the acquittal of Rodney King's assailants in 1992 in that infamous police brutality case changed him significantly.

"I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th, and then the verdicts came down on April 29th," he said. "By August, I was a communist."

Jones and other young activists in 1994 formed a group called Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement, or STORM, rooted in Marxism and Leninsm. Two years later, Jones launched the Ella Baker Center, an Oakland, Calif., based "strategy and action center" which states that it tries to "promote positive alternatives to violence and incarceration."

It was many of the associations formed around this time that served as fodder for conservative critics. In a New Yorker profile of Jones from earlier this year, Jones described his modus operandi as “traditional activism, the politics of confrontation and outrage. I was proud to be hated by the city fathers on both sides of the Bay.”

Over time, Jones focused instead as environmental jobs as a way to lift struggling communities out of poverty, work for which he's been praised as an innovator. Former Vice President Gore told the New Yorker: “I love Van Jones. I love his work. I love his heart and his commitment and his intellect. I love his mission. He has wisely picked a part of this set of interwoven challenges that should have been addressed much more forcefully by me and others long ago.”

But even as Jones lowered his profile in his new position as President Obama's "Green Jobs Czar," critics questioned comments he'd made in his previous incarnation as an activist and advocate for poor and minority communities. What seemed to hurt Jones the most politically, however, was the discovery of his name on the 9/11 "Truther" petition, which suggested President Bush or those in his administration at the very least allowed 9/11 to happen so as to launch wars for oil.

Having expended much time and energy discrediting conservative conspiracy theorists alleging (despite all evidence) that the President was not born in the U.S., and the non-existent "death panels," White House officials found it difficult to justify a top adviser who had associated with similarly fringe sentiments from the Left.

Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., chairman of the House Republican Conference, said on Friday that given "recent revelations concerning the associations and statements of the president's green jobs czar, Van Jones should resign his position and if he is unwilling to do so, the president should demand his resignation. His extremist views and coarse rhetoric have no place in this Administration or the public debate."

Republicans made it clear that they intended to use Jones as Exhibit A in a political prosecution that the Obama Administration has too many "czars" -- unconfirmed by the Senate, with too much power.

Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., ranking Republican on the Green Jobs and the New Economy Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, called for a hearing probing Jones' fitness for the job. 

Jones, Bond said, "is responsible for directing administration policy and spending on tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer funding regarding environmental policy and green jobs programs.  However, since the White House appointed him as a 'czar,' Mr. Jones was able to avoid any oversight or confirmation by the U.S. Senate."

Bond said he was alarmed by Jones' name on the 9/11 "Truther" petition. "Jones in hindsight is embarrassed by the public disclosure of his participation in the petition drive and now asserts he did not read the fine print of the petition," the senator said. "But can the American people trust a senior White House official that is so cavalier in his association with such radical and repugnant sentiments?”

Soul On Ice

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Books
Genre:	Nonfiction
Author:	Eldridge Cleaver

Glenn Beck calling an Obama Administration employee a "rowdy black nationalist," reminded me of a real black nationalist, Eldridge Cleaver.

My Dad encouraged me to read Cleaver's book, Soul On Ice, when I was a kid. Beck's ignorant comments made me want to read it again.

Soul On Ice is a collection of essays written by Cleaver, a former leader of the storied Black Panthers. He wrote the book while serving a nine-year prison sentence at the Folsom State Penitentiary where he discovers his racial identity.

"I knew I was black, but never really stopped to take stock of what I was involved in. I met life as an individual and took my chances." Cleaver was sentenced 9 years for raping a white woman. Cleaver felt his crime was a way to "spit" on the white man's values and women. He lived his life only to benefit himself. After meeting with his attorney, he realizes the value of listening and absorbing what another human being has to say. "The price of hating other human beings is loving one's self less."

On this day in 1991: Senate Committee begins hearings on Clarence Thomas' nomination

Start:	Sep 10, '09
Location:	Washington, DC

Having served since 1991. Justice Thomas is the second African American to serve on the nation's highest court, after Justice Thurgood Marshall, whom he succeeded.

Thomas grew up in Georgia, and graduated from college and law school in New England. In 1974, he was appointed an Assistant Attorney General in Missouri (primarily handling tax matters), and subsequently practiced law there in the private sector. In 1979, he became a legislative assistant to Missouri Senator John Danforth, and in 1981 was appointed as Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education. The following year, Thomas became Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, in which position he served for eight years until joining the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1990.

Thomas was nominated to the Supreme Court by President George H. W. Bush in 1991. Thomas's confirmation hearings were bitter and intensely fought, centering around accusations that he had sexually harassed Anita Hill, a former subordinate. Thomas was ultimately confirmed by a narrow margin by the Senate and assumed his seat on the Court.

Since joining the Court, Thomas has taken an originalist approach to judging, seeking to uphold what he sees as the original meaning of the Constitution and statutes. Moreover, he has often approached federalism issues in a way that limits the federal government's power and expands power of state and local governments, while his opinions have generally supported a strong executive within the federal government.

On this day in 1989: Reverend Al Sharpton leads a civil rights march through Bensonhurst

Start:	Sep 2, '09
Location:	Bensonhurst, New York

On August 23, 1989, a 16-year-old African-American named Yusef Hawkins was shot and killed in Bensonhurst, after he and three friends had been attacked by a group of mostly Italian-American youths. At least four neighborhood residents were tried and convicted of charges related to the assault and murder.

In connection with the Hawkins murder and the subsequent trials, Reverend Al Sharpton led several protest marches through the streets of Bensonhurst. On January 12, 1991, before one such march, neighborhood resident Michael Riccardi tried to kill Sharpton by stabbing him in the chest. Riccardi later remorsefully said that he "thought the act would make me a hero in my community." Sharpton recovered from his wounds, and later asked the judge for leniency when Riccardi was sentenced.

How Capital Punishment Can Be Fun For The Whole Family!! [white families]

H/T Rippa.

Go read his blog on it: http://rippdemup.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-capital-punishment-can-be-fun-for.html?dsq=15370825#comment-15370825

On this day in 1967: Naomi Sims becomes 1st black model on U.S. cover

Start:	Aug 27, '09
Location:	New York, New York

Naomi Sims was on scholarship at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, and began night classes in psychology at New York University. She was short of money and, encouraged by fellow students and teachers, went round to all the model agencies for work. They rejected her, some saying that her dark skin tones only had potential in segregated, lower-paying mags such as Ebony or Jet. She appealed directly to photographers, some of whom, in Bert Stern's words, were noticing that "negroes photograph better against white," blank backgrounds being the norm for fashion. Sims found her photographer, Gosta Peterson of the New York Times, who shot her for the cover of the August 1967 Fashions of The Times.

Naomi Sims lost her battle with cancer August 1, 2009 at the age of 61, nearly 48 years to the day that a black woman appeared on the cover of a mainstream U.S. magazine for the very first time.

'Do the Right Thing': Still a Racial Rorschach at 20

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090831/greene_tinson
Article about how when Do The Right Thing came out, Spike Lee was branded as another angry black man and in reviewing the movie, white people almost invariably were upset over the destruction of Sal's pizza place while seemingly ignoring the police-brutality involved in Radio Rahim's choking death. Rorschach, indeed:

Recalling reactions to the film's violent climax, Lee would later remark, "If in a review, a critic discussed how Sal's Famous was burned down but didn't mention anything about Radio Raheem getting killed, it was pretty obvious that he or she valued white-owned property more than the life of this young black hoodlum." The frankness of Lee's rhetoric and the film's content led the mainstream media to label him an angry, confrontational filmmaker. In her 1989 Time review of Do the Right Thing, titled "He's Got to Have It His Way," Jeanne McDowell observed, "Looking for racism at every turn, [Lee] finds it." An August 1990 cover of US asked, "Spike Lee: Why Is He So Angry?" And in a classic example of ironic racism, an October 1992 Esquire headline declared: "Spike Lee Hates Your Cracker Ass."

Two decades and considerable mainstream success have done little to change the portrayal of the director and his films. In a New Yorker profile of Lee published last year, writer John Colapinto describes--and thereby confirms--Lee's reputation as that of "a filmmaker obsessed with race." For Lee the consistency with which his films' messages regarding race are overshadowed by fear and paranoia is frustrating to say the least. He recently observed, "White people still ask me why Mookie threw the can through the window. No black person ever, in twenty years, no person of color has ever asked me why."

The nation decided to ask for some reactions to the 20th anniversary and I found these two particularly interesting:

Jared A. Ball
Morgan State University

Do the Right Thing still relevant? Well, none of Spike's characters likely still live on that block. "Larry Bird" hasn't just stepped on Buggin' Out's new Jordans. He has taken the entire neighborhood. The same killer cops patrol the newly displaced in their now-suburban colonies in precisely the same manner, mildly harassing Harvard professor "Mookies" while killing the everyday Oscar and Sean Raheems. Today, Mookie still bends to pick up the scraps thrown to the ground by his white benefactors; but Love-Daddy can no longer tell us "the truth, Ruth" because he is syndicated by Sal's nobles, assuring that that either a Hot 97 or a hot 50 kills Radios everywhere, in vestibules, cars or while awaiting trains. And worst of all, throughout black America radical change is simply individual, disorganized, stammering signifiers of defeat. Relevant? It is so relevant that nothing of its kind will again grace a mainstream screen.

---

Ed Guerrero
New York University

Regarding the chemistry of the cinematic and the social, the most interesting "thing" about Do the Right Thing is both how little and (perhaps) how much "things" have changed since '89. As I have argued elsewhere, the "new black film wave" started to plateau at the end of the '90s with about twenty or so black-focused or -directed features of varied scale and quality released yearly by the mainstream film industry. Here, nothing has really changed. Accordingly, Do the Right Thing's social themes--police profiling and brutality; urban, ethnic conflict; the crisis in black families and relationships--all endure, if they haven't intensified. Conversely, the "Age of Obama" suggests some remedy to these issues. Yet the rhetorical jujitsu of "race" continues. Note some senators accusing Judge Sotomayor of "racism" during her confirmation hearings, or the "Skip Gates police affair" blowing up and sustained in the national media. Tellingly, we now need many more filmmakers with the cultural, aesthetic creativity and social focus of Spike Lee, as evinced in Do the Right Thing.

it's interesting how a lot of white people were quick to say that we were now in a post racial America after Obama's win (despite what we saw at McCain/Palin rallies). That was put to rest after the racism at the tea parties, the racism with Sotomayor (even before she was nominated!!), the racism at the healthcare town halls, and the absolute backlash against Obama with the Skip Gates stuff - and that was only in the past year! Eric Holder was right.

Katrina's Hidden Race War

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090105/thompson/single
long but really informative article about roving band of white gangsters who used looters and the absence of the law in post-Katrina New Orleans as an excuse to get their militia on - one "ni**er" at a time. Here's a snippet:

Facing an influx of refugees, the residents of Algiers Point could have pulled together food, water and medical supplies for the flood victims. Instead, a group of white residents, convinced that crime would arrive with the human exodus, sought to seal off the area, blocking the roads in and out of the neighborhood by dragging lumber and downed trees into the streets. They stockpiled handguns, assault rifles, shotguns and at least one Uzi and began patrolling the streets in pickup trucks and SUVs. The newly formed militia, a loose band of about fifteen to thirty residents, most of them men, all of them white, was looking for thieves, outlaws or, as one member put it, anyone who simply "didn't belong."

The existence of this little army isn't a secret--in 2005 a few newspaper reporters wrote up the group's activities in glowing terms in articles that showed up on an array of pro-gun blogs; one Cox News story called it "the ultimate neighborhood watch." Herrington, for his part, recounted his ordeal in Spike Lee's documentary When the Levees Broke. But until now no one has ever seriously scrutinized what happened in Algiers Point during those days, and nobody has asked the obvious questions. Were the gunmen, as they claim, just trying to fend off looters? Or does Herrington's experience point to a different, far uglier truth?

Over the course of an eighteen-month investigation, I tracked down figures on all sides of the gunfire, speaking with the shooters of Algiers Point, gunshot survivors and those who witnessed the bloodshed. I interviewed police officers, forensic pathologists, firefighters, historians, medical doctors and private citizens, and studied more than 800 autopsies and piles of state death records. What emerged was a disturbing picture of New Orleans in the days after the storm, when the city fractured along racial fault lines as its government collapsed.

Herrington, Collins and Alexander's experience fits into a broader pattern of violence in which, evidence indicates, at least eleven people were shot. In each case the targets were African-American men, while the shooters, it appears, were all white.

The new information should reframe our understanding of the catastrophe. Immediately after the storm, the media portrayed African-Americans as looters and thugs--Mayor Ray Nagin, for example, told Oprah Winfrey that "hundreds of gang members" were marauding through the Superdome. Now it's clear that some of the most serious crimes committed during that time were the work of gun-toting white males.

So far, their crimes have gone unpunished. No one was ever arrested for shooting Herrington, Alexander and Collins--in fact, there was never an investigation. I found this story repeated over and over during my days in New Orleans. As a reporter who has spent more than a decade covering crime, I was startled to meet so many people with so much detailed information about potentially serious offenses, none of whom had ever been interviewed by police detectives.

I'm sure Bobby Jindal would be interested in citing these militias as a tribute to the private sector.