Cartoons of White Supremacy - North Carolina

North Carolina - A Parallel Universe?

A largely-black Republican Party. A White Supremacist Democrat Party. Sound like a parallel universe? A sick joke perhaps? No folks - welcome to North Carolina, circa 1900. It plays with ones mind when trying to picture members of the clan as 'democrats' and african americans out moose hunting with Palin and Cheney. I have always believed that any real sense of Black equality and liberty came with Dr King and the Panthers in the 60's and beyond - but in 1896, the largely-black Republican party built a fusion ticket with the poor white man's Populist party and took control of the state capitol and most of the relevant governing offices. Why then was Rosa Parks ordered to give up her seat in Montgomery, Alabama, more than 50 years later? Cos white men don't take so kindly to black folks stickin' their noses in, ya hear? Or something to that effect. Within two years, through fraudulent and violent conduct, the Supremacist Democrats had taken control of the state government. Poll taxes ($1 to vote), residency requirements and literary tests were introduced by the 'Democrats' to cut blacks out of the voting registrar. The voice of Black North Carolina was silenced. Real classy, makes you proud to be white. When Lyndon Johnson's democratic government overturned black disenfranchisement in 1965 with The Voting Rights Act, Black folks naturally sided with their saviours-elect. So here we are in 2010, Fox News is Fox News (I wouldn't have it any other way), and Rumsfeld and Cheney are the noble descendants of the once black Republican Party. Things have truly been turned on their head.

Allah loves Jesus

With 1.57 Billion followers, Islam is a pretty big deal. Indeed, in the past few weeks, I've had an enlightening revelation of my own regarding this world faith. I never knew, for example, that Jesus is accepted and embraced as an influential prophet by Islam - he is not some hate-figure or, if you will, some sort of anti-christ. Like all the other legitimate prophets, Mr. Christ spread the true word of God. So why in the world had I always presumed that Islam and Jesus was like Jay Leno and Letterman? No one ever actually told me that was the case, I just (as one does) presumed. Yes - Jesus is in no way considered divine by the Koran, and the idea of the Holy Trinity - well thats complete $**! to a Muslim. But I could never have guessed quite how inter-linking and paralleled the world's two biggest faiths are. Creationism? Yep thats in there too. Fine, God made the world from water (minor detail) and the Koran actually acknowledges there may have been a Big Bang to start it all - but the general idea, a 'skim-read analysis' - not so different. I suppose what I'm getting at is something I'm sure is felt by others around the world. I am (or at least have been up till now), entirely neutral religiously - unattached let's say. I know very little about the many details of the great faiths out there. But what really worries me, is that almost certainly, there are Christians (and possibly Muslims) out there who know less about religions that are not their own than I do. Ask your average Christian in my current part of the world what they think Jesus means to Muslims - well, you can answer that. I do hope my fears are misconstrued. All the best thought snackers.

Not just a game.

So the Who Dat nation won the superbowl. The down-an-outs, the never have-beens. What a difference 1,592 days make. A 100% superbowl record, an imminent visit to the white house and mardi gras fast approaching; all this in a week, 4 and half years on from the total devastation that ripped through The Big Easy when Katrina hit. I am not, as an Englishman, a fan of 'football' to any great degree - and I can certainly not claim to be a 'Saint'. But the New Orleans story - as many in the media and bars and stores around the country have said before me - is truly a great 'American' story. We have triumphs back home in the UK in sport, in academia and even - Britons hold your breath - in politics. But the all-encompassing nature and social relevance of a success like the Saints' superbowl victory, the light it seems to have shed on a city cast in darkness for too long - that is something foreign to me. I am honestly most grateful for our recent acquaintance. I may never watch a superbowl (or atleast the entire game) again in my lifetime - I still can't appreciate its intricacies all that much - but this one game has let me know how important and evocative such a sporting event can be in America. And to me, thats a pretty cool thing to have learnt.