Mainstream media is mostly white and operates with a naive tunnel vision that often distorts their worldview.
Here's a direct quote from John Pepitone in a recent story he reported for WDAF: "As for the shamrock, Riley insists that he's not trying to hide the fact he's Black."
I respect the work of John Pepitone, this story relevant in providing voters with accurate background information on the candidates.
However . . .
ONLY IN A BIGOTED AND BACKWARD TOWN LIKE KANSAS CITY DOES AN AFRICAN-AMERICAN ELECTED LEADER HAVE TO ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT HIS "BLACKNESS" TO WHITE REPORTERS!!!
This report wouldn't last two minutes in Chicago. Actually, I'm doing local newsies a service as they move up the food chain. Only Kansas City media consumers will be so accepting of the tacit bigotry that confronts most every topic involving race in the media.
Furthermore . . .
TERRY RILEY'S "IRISH" CAMPAIGN SIGN IS MERELY A REFLECTION OF THE RACIST HISTORY, IGNORANCE AND OVERALL APATHY OF JACKSON COUNTY'S ELECTORATE!!!
This sign clearly depicts attitudes that would rather put a guy back in office who has been there since the 70's than vote for The Black Dude in the election. Put simply, the only thing the advert really signifies is the racism that confronts Riley and every person of color in this town.
(This post was written while listening to the rather awesome music of Eddie Delahunt who is more Irish than anybody in Kansas City.)
No Sir, I don't like it.
ReplyDeleteWell. His family must have got the surname from somewhere. Perhaps his ancestors were owned by a Riley family. Hell... he just might be irish. What? You don't think there could be little black leprechaun's???
ReplyDeleteShamrock? Green sign. No pictures? Riley?
ReplyDeletePretty obvious what he is trying to pull on voters.
Masterful.
ReplyDeleteLike Riley isn't known as a city councilman, a black man on the television news all the time?
ReplyDeleteCharles is spot on...he probably IS part Irish. It's just that the aristocrat Irish in town, like O'Neill (who handles Arbanas) get rankled when they are reminded that the (Irish) man in the big house on the plantation spawned African-American children. Riley is not exactly an African name.
ReplyDeleteThe symbol on the T shirt is a four-leaf clover, not a shamrock. Moron mistake.
ReplyDeleteAnd another moron mistake.
Tony, the reporter did not question Riley's blackness. It was Riley and Pat Gray who questioned his blackness by putting the shamrock on his campaign signs.
Riley is clearly ashamed to be black, and I would say that is reason enough for African Americans and progressive Whites to reject him. Since the most well-known Latino voter generally mopes in his mother's basement while he whacks to Internet soft-core porn on Election Day, who cares what his reaction to the sign is.
I think the joke was the black irish bold text and it was "a direct quote from Pepitone."
ReplyDeleteFucking humorless idiots around here T.
Too bad a black guy with an Irish name can't celebrate that part of his heritage, too. Riley should sue O'Niell's guy, and the station, for questioning his use of a shamrock ... a story that implied it is wrong for a black man to DARE to use it, even if he has an Irish surname.
ReplyDeleteAlmost all African-Americans have caucasian blood. If he has Irish ancestors, he's as Irish as any white person with a few Irish ancestors.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but is he lace curtain or shanty? Oh my, this could get juicy.
ReplyDeleteIf Terry goes to the Irish fest, he should win!
ReplyDeleteMany, many Irishmen made tons of money off of their slaves in our country.
ReplyDeleteNo getting away from that. Slaves were generally saddled with the surname of their barbaric persecutors.
Riley has used that particular symbol of "Good Luck" for a long time. Check his political brochures from 10-12 years ago. Wasn't brought up until Overseer O'Neil got his Irish up.
I personally laughed my ass off when I saw one of Riley's MANY yard signs. The county races weren't a priority with me. Not even the lame Charter Change issue. Why bother with the charter UNLESS we put in term limits?
Now I will be certain to vote... for Terry O'Riley!!!!!!
I just saw a Fred Arbanas campaign sign with an AFRIKAN colored background.
ReplyDelete"Mainstream media ... operates with a naive tunnel vision that often distorts their worldview."?!!
ReplyDeleteUnintentional irony, thy name is TKC.
This all goes back to the slave-era concept that if you have one drop of black blood you are black.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how people of mixed race have to choose one identity or the other.
How many white people with Irish names who play up their Irish heritage are really a mixture of Irish, English, Scottish, German, etc., etc.?
I saw an interesting program on KCPT the other day about our origins. DNA testing showed one "black" woman was actually 66% caucasian. Yet of course she was African-American culturally, I'll grant that. But she was also white European in origin and could rightfully claim to be Irish, German or whatever.
This all goes back to the slave-era concept that if you have one drop of black blood you are black.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how people of mixed race have to choose one identity or the other.
How many white people with Irish names who play up their Irish heritage are really a mixture of Irish, English, Scottish, German, etc., etc.?
I saw an interesting program on KCPT the other day about our origins. DNA testing showed one "black" woman was actually 66% caucasian. Yet of course she was African-American culturally, I'll grant that. But she was also white European in origin and could rightfully claim to be Irish, German or whatever.
This all goes back to the slave-era concept that if you have one drop of black blood you are black.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how people of mixed race have to choose one identity or the other.
How many white people with Irish names who play up their Irish heritage are really a mixture of Irish, English, Scottish, German, etc., etc.?
I saw an interesting program on KCPT the other day about our origins. DNA testing showed one "black" woman was actually 66% caucasian. Yet of course she was African-American culturally, I'll grant that. But she was also white European in origin and could rightfully claim to be Irish, German or whatever.
He knows that voters of Missouri are not all colorblind so he is going along to get along. No harm in that.
ReplyDeleteThe fucking guys name is Terry Riley if that is not a fucking irish name call me anonymous. Go Terry!!! My O'Negro!!!!
ReplyDeleteCharles--that was hilarious!!!
ReplyDeleteFreed slaves hadn't been saddles with their masters' surnames... they didn't have surnames, they were generally handled in wills as first name and age.
ReplyDeleteNo surnames, they were bought and sold. And left upon death to another.
They TOOK their masters' surnames often AFTER the war! And not all slavery was as harsh. Certainly field slaves, especially in the south, had it very bad. Domestics, not so much. Pretty ones, not so much. And that program may have also told that many slaveowners actually kept slaves for breeding, and many men did the breeding themselves, much to the chagrin of their white wives.
Helpful to also realize that MOST white farmers did not own slaves, they worked their land themselves and had large families to help. A great many earned their plots of indian land along the frontiers of Penna, Ohio, Ky, Tn, after fighting with the Colonial armies.
Most young people today, after politically correct public school textbooks, know nothing about US history. And most texts had to get through southern state boards of education, so they were pretty sanitary.
Some slavery wasn't so harsh? Is that right, Massa? Those damn politically correct textbooks taught me that all slavery was an abomination, a horror and pretty fucking "harsh" no matter where you were forced to work.
ReplyDeleteYou're an asshole.
Arbansas folks' must be feeling the heat. Why blow up Riley if you feel safe in the lead? Looks like another Jax Co Democrat establishment candidate going down in flames. Run Riley Run!
ReplyDeleteOf course, I don't know if Riley is really Irish or not.
ReplyDeleteBut isn't it odd that a black man can't embrace his Irish, German or other European roots? Is this a throwback to slavery days? A black is black and nothing else?
Almost all of my ancestors came from England, but I have a German last name. Can I embrace my Anglo-Saxon side or do I have to be German and nothing else?
Let's be honest. Lots of black people are just as European as they are African. Slavery was certainly wrong, but there were often nuances that we don't grasp today. Read the book "The Hemmingses of Monticello," for example. Also ready Alex Haley's books.
So, bottom line: A black guy CAN be Irish. Get over it.
Paul McGrath.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ObXxJ6tfnk
If Henry Louis Gates can be 80% Irish then Terry can be too.
ReplyDelete3:55 I bet there are blacks in Ireland. I know there are in England. Therefore are they referred to as African-Irish or African-British? How about African-Haitians or African-Cubans? What the hell does it matter? Where did we ever come up with African-anything? Black is an easy and non derogatory term. Terry is Black, perhaps with Irish ancestry.
ReplyDeleteI heard that Terry Riley is not relation to former Lakers Head Coach Pat Riley, but he did go to college with that midget Matt Rolloff!
ReplyDelete#2:34
ReplyDeleteI'm not an asshole, just straighting out your inaccurate impressions of history, earned from half baked history.
Not everybody white was an asshole and if I bust your balloon, don't call me one because you don't like your mental pictures disturbed.
I won't lie to you, white slaveowners loved slavery because it was legal power over others. but not all of them were assholes. Some treated their slaves pretty well and if that disturbs your views, well too bad. And yes, others, MANY OTHERS, were abusers of their power.
Remember that the words in textbooks were the result of hours and hours of compromise between the historians who wrote them and the textbook SALES departments trying to get Alabama school districts to BUY them! What a classic case of historical revisionism!
Just remember, like you, most people who write books have a point of view and tend to print examples to illustrate their viewpoints.
Maybe you should chill out for you've been reading opinion blogs way too long. Calling me an asshole because of one msg tends to make me think maybe you're not really listening. You've already decided how things are and anything to the contrary irritates the shit out of you.
Terry is going to get his hind end kicked by Arbanas. He could have rainbow colored signs and still lose. He might get indicted, but he won't get elected. Maybe he can run for president of his cell block sometime in the future.
ReplyDeleteTerry Riley is a white hater and is now pretending to be Irish for personal gain. He's part of the black klan you self-hating morons.
ReplyDelete7:17: Learn to read, asshole. I never said anything about white people or slave owners. I challenged your idiotic statement that not all slavery was "harsh." That's it. Oh, and said that you're an asshole for saying it. Those two things.
ReplyDeleteThere were black slave owners too you fools. Hater Riley - stop his hate!
ReplyDelete