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  1. #1
    Unregistered Bringthetruth's Avatar
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    Black Double Standard-HBO Bill Maher

    SPEAK FREELY- BLACK DOUBLE STANDARD?

    I don’t know why this is happening but it is. There’s no doubt about it. There appears to be a double standard when it comes to enforcing peace and liberating innocents.

    Let me explain. Earlier this month, I was on my couch watching Bill Maher’s show on HBO. One of the guests, Mia Farrow, was trying to draw attention to the crisis in Darfur, Sudan. She had just come back from a visit to a nearby refugee camp. I don’t need to explain the crisis but to those who have forgotten – Sudanese government backed militiamen are raping, dismembering and slaughtering innocent civilians. There are estimates that as many as 2 million have been killed or displaced so far. After the interview with Farrow, another guest, former Representative Joe Scarborough, commented on the crisis but took the conversation in an entirely different direction. Here’s a transcript of his exchange with NPR commentator, John Ridley:

    MAHER: That is a shame, that we keep talking about it and nothing seems to – nothing seems to get done.

    SCARBOROUGH: You know, back in, I think, 1998, I had a resolution, and we laid out all the particulars – Abe Rosenthal, former editor of the New York Times, came around and was talking about it. At that time, over a million Sudanese had been killed in the civil war – 1998! But, you know, it’s so interesting, we go to Kosovo, we go to Bosnia—

    MAHER: Right.

    SCARBOROUGH: [overlapping]—we go to Iraq. We’re going to go to Iran. And yet 2 million Rwandans get slaughtered in 1994, we do nothing. The United Nations does nothing. In ’97, ’98, one to two million Sudanese get slaughtered, we do nothing. Why? What’s the difference? [pause]

    MAHER: Black guy?

    SCARBOROUGH: Black guy?

    RIDLEY: Let me jump in right here.

    SCARBOROUGH: Yeah, black guy.

    MAHER: Black guy, I think that’s your cue. [laughter]

    RIDLEY: It’s about time. You know, I wish I could reduce it to the density of the color of their skin. I don’t know that I can. But the problem is, is when you have the government saying – one of the many reasons to go to Iraq is because he was a bad guy, Saddam Hussein was a bad guy.

    MAHER: Right.

    RIDLEY: There are a lot of bad guys out there. So I can’t say exactly why we’re not doing things in the Sudan. But it bothers me when that’s used as an excuse in Iraq, and clearly that’s not a reason. There’s an excuse and there’s a reason. It’s not a reason to go into the Sudan. That’s where it’s problematic.

    SCARBOROUGH: Well, the thing – you talk about Kosovo or Bosnia, and we have a report this past week that, what, how many, many 10,000 white people were slaughtered. They called it genocide. Again, 2 million in Rwanda. Up to 2 million in the Sudan. We do nothing. It’s hard not to say it’s because the people in Sudan don’t look like the majority of Americans.

    Just today, the commander-in-charge of Iraq, General David Petraeus, asked for even more troops and yet there’s still not one American boot on the ground in Sudan. Why? I’m not saying the US has to be the world’s police but I would just like to know how we decide when it’s time to act. And which atrocities deserve our attention?

    In the rationale for going to war in Iraq, our President said it was in order to find weapons of mass destruction and disarm Saddam. Then he said we have to act because Saddam Hussein was ignoring the UN. Then he said that we have to free the Iraqi people from a cruel dictator “who gasses his own people”. Later, Bush said the lives of millions of freedom seeking people were in the balance. The country… the Congress… and the “Coalition of the Willing” bought into that. And so we acted to pursue a noble cause.

    Now in Darfur, we have similar circumstances. Possibly millions of lives are seeking liberty. An unknown number of people are, in fact, slaughtered. We have a government that’s ignoring calls from the UN to let peacekeepers in. And a cruel government is backing “janjaweed” militiamen who are committing atrocities against their own people. The UN says the international community should act. The President called it “genocide.” And the best we can do is to send George Clooney and Angelina Jolie? I know he was Batman and she was Lara Croft but… really? There are more celebrities than UN or US troops on the ground?

    What’s the difference? Who decides? Explain to it me. And don’t just say it’s about oil because Sudan is rich in oil too. In fact, it’s one of the main sources of oil to China. Again…who decides when it’s time to act? And which atrocities deserve our attention?

  2. #2
    Unregistered Bringthetruth's Avatar
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    I figured this would get no response, the truth is too real huh?

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    Member raoul duke's Avatar
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    if they were sitting on a precious natural resource, we'd be all over that place like white on rice. but alas, thats not the case. its a perfect example of why our foreign policy is a joke and the only reason people take us seriously is because, as a whole, we are very wealthy (for the time being) and very violent.
    One beautiful thing about having a government of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations is that every disaster is measured in terms of economic loss. It's sort of like getting your arm sheared off in a car accident and thinking, "Damn, now it'll take longer to fold the laundry" as blood spurts from your arteries. - The Rude Pundit

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    I dunno, Bringthetruth. Maybe it's that you post subjects that talk at us and you rarely talk with us. I know this is a computer, and it's hard to see us as real people on our side of the screen, but we are.
    I don't know about you, but I tend to avoid people that verbally B'slap me at every encounter. I don't need to be called a racist at every post of yours. Maybe not me personally, but I am a white woman. Do you really hate all white people? Or, are you really the person depicted in your profile?
    First Amendment rights are like muscles, if you don't exercise them they will atrophy.

  5. #5
    Member unioncop's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bringthetruth
    I figured this would get no response, the truth is too real huh?
    how about the fact that it is just a stupid topic but please send pics when you go visit
    "PAY POLICE LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT"
    "WE ARE HERE TO PROTECT YOUR ASS NOT KISS IT"
    "DOWN WITH BROWN"

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    Member raoul duke's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by unioncop
    how about the fact that it is just a stupid topic but please send pics when you go visit
    yeah, this is nowhere near as important as the dangerous intersection in hamburg or which political hack is running for what. i mean, its only genocide.
    One beautiful thing about having a government of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations is that every disaster is measured in terms of economic loss. It's sort of like getting your arm sheared off in a car accident and thinking, "Damn, now it'll take longer to fold the laundry" as blood spurts from your arteries. - The Rude Pundit

  7. #7
    Member Eat My Gun's Avatar
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    Anyone remember Somalia?

    The issue isn't really about race. It's about resources and real or perceived threats to US national security. With Afghanistan it was the Taliban and 9/11. In Iraq it was Saddam and "weapons of mass destruction" not to mention the stability of the oil rich middle east. We no better now, but at the time that was the rationale.

    What's happening in the Sudan is the forced conversion or extermination Christians and non-Muslims. In Rwanda, it was ethnic cleansing. Bosnia was a US supported NATO operation.

    The fact is you're not going to get widespread American support for military action unless US interests are at stake, and rightfully so.

    There are, however, a number of NGOs and private contractors operating in the Sudan. Those of you who are more than willing to send SOMEONE ELSE over there should look them up and volunteer YOURSELF...


    "I won't live by rules that make no sense to me." - Evan Tanner 1971-2008

    Transfixus sed non Mortuus

  8. #8
    Unregistered Bringthetruth's Avatar
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    Mesue, I am so sorry that you take my post personaly. But you need to grow up a little and expand you horizons on the world and not just you neighborhood.

    And like Raoul said , these issues I post rise an awarness that many here don't read about.

    We all bring something to the forum so why make my role in the forum a big deal.

    I bring truth you would never hear or talk about. Living an insulated life keep us all in ignornace of other people not like ourselves.

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    Member Tommy A's Avatar
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    ok, do we send in the marines and wipe out the sudanese army or what? let's say we do send in troops, no one over here is going to protest. yea right. no matter what the president does he will always be wrong. cindy sheehan will be the first one in line to lynch president bush if he sends in the troops. i too have become weary of the war in iraq. but now you are calling for a war on 2 fronts. sooner or latter we will have so many troops overseas that our own border will be left wide open, what happens then? try and protest if you are trying to save your own hide. it is time to start living in peace. start getting back to some old fashion religion and ask God through prayer to intervene and end all the atrocities throughout the world. i know personally that is what i have been doing. i truly believe that if more people did this(get down on your knees and pray) that this thread would surely be unnecessary.

  10. #10
    Member steven's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bringthetruth
    But you need to grow up a little and expand you horizons on the world and not just you neighborhood....

    I bring truth you would never hear or talk about. Living an insulated life keep us all in ignornace of other people not like ourselves.
    You have an overblown sence of self.

    Thinking you know more than other people who's life experiances you havent been a part of keeps you in ignornace of other people not like yourself.

    You bring your opinion.

    Nothing more. Nothing less.

    Just like everyone else.
    People who wonder if the glass is half empty or full miss the point. The glass is refillable.

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bringthetruth
    ...
    But you need to grow up a little ...

    You have no idea where I grew up or how I came to be.
    First Amendment rights are like muscles, if you don't exercise them they will atrophy.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Bringthetruth
    Mesue, I am so sorry that you take my post personaly. But you need to grow up a little and expand you horizons on the world and not just you neighborhood.

    And like Raoul said , these issues I post rise an awarness that many here don't read about.

    We all bring something to the forum so why make my role in the forum a big deal.

    I bring truth you would never hear or talk about. Living an insulated life keep us all in ignornace of other people not like ourselves.
    Oh good. Another condescending SU member.

  13. #13
    Member Crisco Kid's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bringthetruth
    Mesue, I am so sorry that you take my post personaly. But you need to grow up a little and expand you horizons on the world and not just you neighborhood.

    And like Raoul said , these issues I post rise an awarness that many here don't read about.

    We all bring something to the forum so why make my role in the forum a big deal.

    I bring truth you would never hear or talk about. Living an insulated life keep us all in ignornace of other people not like ourselves.
    "I bring truth you would never hear or talk about. Living an insulated life keep us all in ignornace of other people not like ourselves."
    You realize of course this statement is 'black as well as white'.

    I was going to print an e-mail I received but then decided not to. Not that it was untrue, I just decided not to get dragged into your racist views.
    "God's grace and mercy have brought you through. Quit acting as if you made it on your own." ~ T. D. Jakes

    "Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a dilusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end." ~ Unknown

    The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. ~ Walt Disney

    12/21/2012

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