Acting White: Polanski vs. The Long Arm Of The Rule Of Law

I was pleased to see this talented man, who would drug and rape a 13 year old girl, entrapped in Swiss irony. This is so juicy, I can hardly stand it. Talk about intrigue. Let’s see the linkage – France and its Jews during WWII, Poland’s Krakow ghetto, Auschwitz death camp, Hollywood, Sharon Tate et al murders, Charles Manson, Jack Nicholson, drugs, rape, judicial misconduct and flight from prison, and finally the Swiss. This man is his own movie, we just need an ending.

The lynch-pin in the deal is the Swiss. The cultural Swiss elite invite Polanski to pop over from France to pick up a lifetime-achievement award, only to unwittingly set him up to get nabbed by the Swiss authorities as a lifetime-scumbag. Freaking hilarious! I liken the predicament of the Swiss to that of spilling hot liquid onto your crotch in public, and then trying to hold in the screaming pain-dance, which only magnifies the attention and embarrassment.

If only the conveniently-neutral Swissies had done the same thing with the Nazi’s when they came to retrieve their WWII booty, looted from the Jews et al. There would have been less need to hunt down the low-life Hitler-bastards from all corners of the world. But, in Polanski’s case, why now? It can't be that he is an expendable Jew in some of their minds (at least), can it?

It would be interesting to know if Polanski had cash stowed in UBS, the Swiss banking giant that just coughed-up the names of rich American tax scofflaws. He does own a Swiss ski chalet. This would have popped him onto a freshly-Windexed cross-tab screen at DOJ (felon and tax cheat), under Obama. Letting Polanski walk when the DOJ/IRS is coming down hard on rich, law-abiding, tax-cheats is not good prosecutorial business - it looks selective. Add to all of this the fact that the O-man’s got two budding girls of his own, so no slack in the Obama House. VIOLA ROMAN, YOUR BUSTED!!!

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how it plays out, and definitely get ready to see this one on the big screen (but don’t look for a Spike Lee Joint). I can already imagine the agents in H-wood lining up the guys to play Roman. The Rule of Law - gotta’ love it baby.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: What Is Your Race-IQ?

This post is not about the IQ of any particular race, but rather about race-IQ, or assessing how intelligent a person is about race. Judging from what I witness day-to-day, most people, white, black or other, have very low race-IQ’s. The greatest indicator of this is how often events show misplacement of the line distinguishing discretionary rights of association versus non-discretionary behavior pertaining to the freedoms and rights of others.

I describe Racial Intelligence (RI) as the ability, capacity, skill, to identify, analyze, and manage the intersection of one's discretionary rights and behaviors having to do with race, and those choices and behaviors, again, about race, that intrude on the rights of others.

Many minorities, and a lesser percentage of the majority, pretend that racism is always reprehensible. It is not. The conundrum of racism is not the ‘why’ of it, but rather that its existence is both reprehensible and natural, even desirable, in some cases. By example, black and white parents can each want their kids to marry within a given ethnicity, all the while unwilling to call this show of acceptable racism by name, compared to the obviously (to most) unacceptable racism such as detaining someone merely for the color of their skin.

In my experience, majority members, in the case of whites in America, tend to err on the side of over-extending the exercise of discretion into the actual rights of minorities, when asserting their majority influence. Minorities, on the other hand, tend to err on the side of over-extending the accusation of racism onto the discretionary exercise of rights by the majority, from their minority viewpoint. Call it a standoff. This makes each side guilty of displaying low racial intelligence, as we ‘game’ race interactions into a zero-sum result, and at the cost of not maximizing benefit for everyone.

These disparities of viewpoint and approach may be natural and expected, but does not mean that they should go unattended or unchecked. However, the crude labeling of all racial distinction/preference as bad, while shoving it into the closet labeled racist does little for progress. We see proof of this every day.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: All-White Swim Club Remains In Hot Water

The Pennsylvania Human Relation Commission has issued a finding of a reasonable probability of discrimination based on race, including a penalty not to exceed $50,000. This is follow-up to the private Philly-area swim club that contracted this past summer with an urban day care center (Creative Steps Day Camp) for access, but who then broke said contract, when the predominantly minority (black) kids showed up to swim.

Hmmm...Let's see. The swim director of the club stated to the TV media that the visiting kids changed the 'complexion' of the (all-white) club , with presumably a negative impact. (complexion? no shi_t Sherlock!) (story here) One member, who is a Philly public school teacher was reported to say, 'what are all these black kids doing here?'. Ouch!

Seems straightforward to me. Director signs contract to help tight budget, takes money, dark 'complexions' show up, all-white membership demands director's head-on-stick, director summarily cancels contract (w/o consulting a lawyer) and returns money to complexion-challenged, and states, 'my bad and adiós negritas', then booboo hits fan. Now get ready to pay for this stupidity.

No one made this club contract with outsiders, they did this of their own free capitalistic will. Until then, discretion says they were free to segregate all they want. However, they are not free to discriminate in enforcing or dishonoring legally binding contracts for public access. This is not discretion, but rather the law.

I just hope the day care center puts any monies they get into a scholarship trust fund for the actual kids who felt the sting of member-words that day. Then, perhaps, some lasting good will have come out of this mess.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Belleville (MO) Beat Down of White Student

My first and last thought, after watching this violence, is that the assailants should be prosecuted as adults and locked away, without hesitation. If race was a factor, they should be charged with hate crimes too.

In between, I am asking myself why did this happen? I can't fathom this kind of violence in my own fourteen-year old boy's life, but that's just because I haven't given it enough of my attention. I'm thinking the world is a different place than when I was a kid. Wrong.

All I had to do is put myself in that white kid's place and it all came rushing back to me. At fourteen I rode to school with an all-white bus load of boys, with seating priority going to upper-class-men. When the bus was full, the toughest of the 9th through 12th grade boys would take an entire seat leaving the late-comers to stand. Any boy who forced himself into a seat was risking a fight. I saw my share of white-on-white ass-whippings.

I decided early-on to make myself the "Rosa Parks" exception to this standing rule, by not flinching to fight the first kid who tried to block me from sitting. I wanted everyone to know that to block me was to fight me, win or lose, with no discussion or guesswork. After my first battle, I never stood and I never made anyone else stand either. However, I shudder to think of how I looked that day I punched out a kid who was just showing off for his friends.

In my case and thirty-five years ago, it wasn't so much a race thing as it was dumb-male ritual. For the tough guys, giving up 'your' seat was akin to saying you were a punk. Maybe this is what was happening on the Belleville High bus, but the level of violence seemed greater. The black boys were wrong and I hope they are punished no-less than the severity of their behavior. No excuses.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: America’s Final 'Race' Exam

You have just entered your last final exam on the last day of your graduate studies. The proctor hands you a blue booklet with but a single essay question on the cover. Answer correctly and you will graduate with honors, with a good job. Incorrectly, and you get to repeat the year at a cost of $50K, plus all the humiliation you can imagine.

Question: In no more than three regular sentences, describe why those who vehemently disagree with President Obama are not exhibiting racism in their characterization of him as a witch-doctor.

Bonus One: In one sentence, explain why Obama claims this depiction is not racist.

Bonus Two: In one sentence, explain why Jimmy Carter thinks this depiction is racist.

You may begin. Eyes straight ahead. Good luck.

WARNING: ALL FAILING RESPONSES WILL BE DELETED.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Obama Owes Male Donkeys Apology

While I understand, and share, President Obama’s reaction to rapper Kanye West’s interruption of Country singer Taylor Swift at the VMA, I think Barack owes male donkeys everywhere an apology. Kanye is much more than a jackass, as intimated by the president.

I have to think that this was a planned stunt, designed to hog air-time and self-promote. Someone told me this isn’t the first time West has pulled this B.S. Kudos to Jay Leno for asking guest-Kanye, the following evening, what the rapper’s mother, now deceased, would have had to say about her son’s antics. For the first time ever, West looked humbled. He should have that look tattooed on his forehead.

Anyway, less my loyal readers think I have gotten soft on self-responsibility, have no fear, tis not the case. But I will ask the location of all this vitriol when former president Bush was putting us into this economic hellhole. FTR, Jimmy Carter nailed it when he said the LEVEL (not the existence) of animosity towards O-man is influenced by race. JC wasn’t the best listener as prez, but I believe he knows white folks, especially southerners, better than most.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Straight Out Of Compton

You can take the Serena out of the Compton, but, after this weekend’s US Open semi-final melt-down, her old address is clearly still securely stored under favorites in the limo’s GPS, right in there with haughty addresses in S. Florida and S. California, for sure. I’m talking about her extremely liberal use of the f-word in a threatening manner to a lines woman, who foot-faulted her against Belgian Kim Clijsters, leading to a semi-final match-ending penalty.

Sure, she’s apologizing now and for real on the second go-round, but that’s probably only because of the e-word, endorsements. No company paying millions wants to be associated with a loose-cannon, ready to back up her physically threatening words, and forgetful of what it means to behave as a true champion.

In fairness, the lines woman should be exiled to Greenland. She compounded a wrong call, with a bad (bogus) call. Anyone who knows championship tennis knows that a foot-fault should never decide a game, a set, or a match. Everyone loses, both players, as well as the fans. It is unconscionable for a judge to insert themselves into the game this way. Nonetheless, it is even worse for any player, and certainly one of Serena’s caliber, to launch into such an expletive-laced tirade.

With all this said, let's step off the baseline for a minute for a point or two. The first is that Serena is known for comebacks, even at championship-point – she rarely gives up. So I believe her feelings of being ‘jacked’ (as they say in Compton) were real, even though most people watching thought it was past time to hoist a Belgian brew. No excuse, just the reality. Second, that lines woman posted the equivalent of Republican Joe Wilson’s “You Lie”, when she foot-faulted this future hall-of-famer, just when Serena’s got girlfriend Clijsters feeling over-confident.

So where did the lines woman get the ovaries to make that never-before-witnessed bad call, at the worse time. Perhaps, the same place that Wilson visited to rent the testicles to call President Obama a liar to his face, in front of Congress and the Senate, and the whole of America. Each was reflecting, whether they meant to or not, that in today’s Glenn Beck America, be you tennis champion or President, if you don’t look like my ideal, then prepare to get new, heretofore uncharted, mounds of disrespect broken over your 'uppity' ass. There, I said it. Deal with it.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Aggravated Insult - Part II

"Except as otherwise authorized by law, any person who willfully discharges a firearm in a grossly negligent manner which could result in injury or death to a person is guilty of a public offense and shall be punished by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by imprisonment in the state prison."
California Penal Code 246.3

Well, it looks like Ms. Suzie Q and her attorney have their work cut out, thanks, in part, to the indignation I showed the other day when the DA/OPD asked if I wanted (still) to press charges. Today's OPD call was to inform me that the D.A. has decided to pursue a CPC 246.3 charge (above), and that I should expect a subpoena in the mail to appear and testify in court.

For those who are interested, I will dissect the charge, as each word has specific 'criminal' meaning. Consider "...any person who willfully discharges a firearm in a grossly negligent manner which could result in injury or death to a person...

- any person, this means all the usual suspects, but also including young fair-haired white girls, that you might believe incapable of hurting a flea.

- willfully, this means that with forethought "Suzie" held the firearm in her porcelain hand and pulled the trigger with purpose and intent of launching a projectile from its barrel.

- discharges, this means the firearm actually performed the action for which it was manufactured, and which "Suzie" initiated, at the time in question.

- firearm, this means that the object "Suzie" controlled was indeed an instrument distinct in its capability of launching, through an ignition sequence, a projectile at a potentially lethal velocity.

- grossly negligent, this means that not only could someone have been reasonably injured by this discharge (negligence), but that it is further reasonable that someone could have been killed, or suffer grave bodily injury (gross).

For the record, and for those who think I have no compassion, I told both the owner of the gun and "Suzie" that neither would get any measure of lenience from me, as neither of them, combined or individually, sought the resulting path of the fired bullet from the weapon, in order to render emergency aid, as possibly required. Eff me you say? Okay then, eff you!

Stay tuned...

James C. Collier

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Technorati Tags: Acting White: Aggravated Insult - Part II, SWF, Arrested, Negligent, Police, Acting White

Acting White: Aggravated Insult To Assault

Contrary to what some believe, I don’t see race in every issue. Sex, maybe, race, no. Race issues (like everything else) are often about sex, but I’ll save that for another post.

Back on topic - when a bullet came flying into my living space last week, fired by a young woman, there was no issue of race, except that she was not a young black male, the statistical odds-on favorite for such activity here in Oakland. The three responding police officers, Asian, White, and Latino, arrived, albeit delayed, and were professional all the way around, including the arrest of shooter. No race issue here. The OPD called the following day to say they wanted to send a technician by to look at the evidence, but this has yet to happen. It seems that the technicians are a pretty busy OP department. Still, no race issue.

Continuing on - one of my neighbors sent me an e-mail saying that the shooter had been charged with aggravated assault (negligent discharge of a firearm), which carries, even as a misdemeanor here in California, a minimum six-month jail sentence. So I’m thinking, wow, these people are serious – go Oakland. Fair is fair, still no issue.

So where’s the race issue, dude? Well, yesterday I got another call from the OPD, but this time they are saying that the D.A. is asking if I want to press charges against the shooter. What? Since when do I have to press charges to get people to do their jobs protecting the public? The caller said the D.A. would pursue at my request, and that I should bring the collected bullet fragments to court, once they got back to me with a date.

Now just for fun, I replayed the officer’s request to a friend (non-black) who lives in Oakland, and the first thing she said was, “I bet the D.A. wouldn’t be asking you that question if the shooter was black”. Yes world, we have a confirmed sighting of a race issue in Oakland. Let’s see, witnesses (5), bullet hole, smoking gun, spent bullet, but still a questionable prosecution, why? Two words – white female.

Now, it is only her fault that she is likely to go to jail – the law is the law and her actions risked GBI (great bodily injury). I’m betting that the D.A. would like to bend the charge to simple assault (minimum probation), but for that he needs to know that the victim, me, is not going to kick-up a shit storm. Don’t count on it. They don’t know how well I kick. For starters, I smell a class-action suit on behalf of all the black, Latino, and other non-white CPC 245’s prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to the full extent, while this D.A. is looking for a reason to let Snow White off with a wrist-slap. I’m not playing – this B.S. is not funny, and on this, as the owner of the bullet hole, I have some standing, whether certain people like it or not.

Stay tuned.

James C. Collier

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Acting White: Acting Stupid In Oakland

This post is evidence that stupidity does not care about race, gender, age, or anything else. It takes up residence wherever, and in whomever it likes. An adult-age young person was arrested this morning just outside my humble abode. For context, while I live in an urban setting, my building happens to be the part-time residence of California’s current attorney general, Oakland's former Mayor, and likely re-run governor, one Jerry Brown. So one might think they are safe here - they would be wrong!

Earlier this morning I was abruptly awakened by what sounded like a gunshot. I looked outside and saw nothing. I returned to spy damage in my wall of what appeared to be the result of a discharged weapon. Further searching along an assumed trajectory showed a bullet lodged in an opposing concrete surface. Damn, somebody (namely me) could have been killed!

Regardless of the statistics, the culprit was not a young black male, with sagging pants, but rather a fair-haired white female who was visiting my next-door neighbor, a British-accented fellow who happened to have, on premise, a registered and loaded handgun. Despite explicit warnings (I'm told), the woman retrieved the weapon, and, minus any permission, fired it through the wall into my apartment. Yep, that's right, through the wall over the sofa. After questioning her, the OPD charged her with negligent discharge of a firearm, and provided a free back-seated, hand-cuffed, ride to downtown Oakland. I can only assume that her comments to them did not give them pause to option her a "oops, my bad, I'm just a harmless white girl' citation and cut her lose. BTW, the charge (CPC 246.3 is a 'wobbler', misdeameanor or felony) and carries a max of one year in jail.

So for those who like to believe that only blacks are violent, reckless and stupid, or that this blogger believes this because I write about such things, here is one piece of home-grown data to chew on when it comes to the agnostic character of stupidity. Said trigger-happy, authentic 'white chick' did not get a pass from the OPD, nor did I have to display any race cards to get proper action. Today undoubtedly goes down as a good day for me, since I did not actually catch the lead projectile so carelessly, and violently, launched in my direction.

James C. Collier

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