Jay Bookman

By Analchord

September 10, 2008 5:40 PM | Link to this

racism is in America’s DNA, Jay. We have to shine a light on every instance of racially tainted hate speak, even if it’s just a gaff.

The more we object, the louder we cry out, then maybe we’ll get people to think about the harm they can inflict on another human being with words. ONe person can make a difference in another person’s life no matter how distant or unrelated they are by using words.

Just with words. I dont want Wilbanks to resign, I want him to explain this over and over till we all get it.

Your problem, Jay Bookman, is that U dont understand our culture. You have the writing part down, all you need to do is like take a citizen review test and then you’ll be perfect. What year did Francis Scott Keys burn his copy of “The Star Spangled Banner” because of copyright infringements? When was the Boston Tea Party and which tribe of injuns did the Papers blame it on?

See? You dont understand OUR culture, Jay Bookman.

So quit thinking you can advise us on our racism and stuff.

By RW-(the original)

September 10, 2008 5:53 PM | Link to this

Wilbanks then observed that Idaho doesn’t have many black residents. In other words, you can’t have disproportionate discipline of minority students if you don’t have minority students in the first place.

Assuming one is figuring out proportionality by percentage of the school population I would think that in a state like Idaho it would be nearly impossible not to have a disproportionate percentage of the minority population being disciplined.

If you’ve got 1000 kids in school and 10 are minorities if 3 of the minority students got disciplined, you would have to discipline about 327 on the non minority students to even up the percentage.

Other than that I’m with you on this one Jay. False charges of racism do indeed cheapen the real problem. Kind of like when Obama is constantly out there implying that Republicans are attacking him with racism even though he can’t seem to find any examples.

By JAY BOOKMAN

September 10, 2008 6:05 PM | Link to this

Obama never implies any such thing, RW. He goes out of his way to never do that.

By jasper

September 10, 2008 6:11 PM | Link to this

Its hard to reconcile the actions of the NAACP president with the acronym itself. With so much low hanging fruit out there in the form of drop out rates, teen preganancy rates, single parenthood rates, and crime rates, and locally Clayton county, how does he think that the resignation of the most successful superintendent in the state will advance the cause of blacks.

I guess I don’t understand OUR culture either when it prioritizes vengeance over prosperity.

By GodHatesTrash

September 10, 2008 6:14 PM | Link to this

So, Mr. Bookman, do you think Mr. Portalatin was acting too uppity for you and the Gwinnettians? That silly old Negro - daring to question why colored kids get disciplined more than the fine white students of Gwinnett County. Damn uppity he is!

Now Jorge, boy, Massuh Bookman says you zip it, you zip it.

Good God, what an astounding kkkracker putz you are.

Go write for the Woo-tan Klan blog.

By TW

September 10, 2008 6:18 PM | Link to this

Analchord - you are a blow to the cause.

Well said, Jay. It’s about like the old ‘cry wolf.’

By Taxpayer

September 10, 2008 6:21 PM | Link to this

Jay, I wouldn’t want to make a call on this one based on the information given. I know of some other situations where the NAACP got involved and it was only after there had been a demonstrated pattern of behavior. I suspect that this Mr. Portalatin didn’t push this issue this far purely due to a few remarks that could be interpreted one way or another. Time will tell.

By Jasper

September 10, 2008 6:24 PM | Link to this

Jay, come on. What about the comment,”They tell you I don’t look like the other presidents on the money”. He’s done it albeit tacitly. He could do it more, and I admire that he hasn’t. I don’t think he would require the ouster of Wilbank’s, but he would meet with him and sugest that he take some sensitivity triaining, and perhaps hear how comments like his can hurt. Then I like to believe he would also talk to the local black community, soothe their feelings, and get them refocused on education.

He would make a grand president of the NAACP.

By sunshine and thunder

September 10, 2008 6:25 PM | Link to this

I think if I ever hear the word “insensitive” in this context again I’m going to scream.

If I had been “insensitive” when I was growing up I would have been picked on by every bully for miles around.

Get over it and drop the word “insensitive”.

By jasper

September 10, 2008 6:32 PM | Link to this

Good point Taxpayer. If Wilbanks would say something this stupid, what else has he done. Nevertheless, this alone isn’t enough to string him up. Hopefully the bad ink on this will serve him notice for future reference.

By mike hussein smith

September 10, 2008 6:34 PM | Link to this

Wilbanks is frequently accused of arrogance and condescension, so maybe there’s something to those claims. But Portalatin is tilting at windmills and doesn’t have a good argument that what Wilbanks said was racist.

By JAY BOOKMAN

September 10, 2008 6:35 PM | Link to this

Trash, he isn’t criticizing Wilbanks for the disproportionate discipline. That would at least be an issue of some substance.

He wants Wilbanks gone for the crime of noting that Idaho is almost lily white.

And RW, the line you quote from Obama is nowhere close to “implying that Republicans are attacking him with racism.”

By AJC/DNC Management

September 10, 2008 6:37 PM | Link to this

I sense a hysterical Cynthia Tucker column in the making.

By GodHatesTrash

September 10, 2008 6:37 PM | Link to this

This Portalatin guy is way off base. He should leave it to fine white people of Gwinnett County, Metro Atlanta, and Georgia to be fair to their coloreds. Their history shows them to be very progressive, high-minded, reasonable people.

By RW-(the original)

September 10, 2008 6:40 PM | Link to this

Jay B,

What line did I quote from Obama?

By RW-(the original)

September 10, 2008 6:45 PM | Link to this

“We know what kind of campaign they’re going to run,” said the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. “They’re going to try to make you afraid. They’re going to try to make you afraid of me. ‘He’s young and inexperienced and he’s got a funny name. And did I mention he’s black?’”

There you go Jay, now you can complain that I quoted him.

By Bud Wiser

September 10, 2008 6:46 PM | Link to this

Maybe if elected, Obama will leave many of our society’s problems to be solved by the pigs, er uh, duh, waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait ,he means, uppity women folk that he will appoint to key positions that men don’t want.

And they’d better not wear lipstick to work either.

Obama/Biden ‘08 - making it easy to be stupid……. and sexist

By JAY BOOKMAN

September 10, 2008 6:49 PM | Link to this

Sorry RW, my bad. Jasper posted it.

By AJC/DNC Management

September 10, 2008 6:50 PM | Link to this

Governor Implies Palin’s Repeated Use Of ‘Community Organizer’ Is Another Way Of Saying ‘Black’ “I think the Republican Party is too smart to call Barack Obama ‘black’ in a sense that it would be a negative. But you can take something about his life, which I noticed they did at the Republican Convention – a ‘community organizer.’ They kept saying it, they kept laughing,” he said.

Maybe I missed Oblahma’s denouncement of this.

By T

September 10, 2008 6:51 PM | Link to this

When I first heard about the comment, I didn’t find it racist. To me, he just stated the fact that there are not many blacks in Idaho. I am sooo tired of race being an issue. One day. One day. Maybe, we can judge people soley based upon their character, wait. sorry.

Still think he was taken out of context.. Kind of a stretch.

By AJC/DNC Management

September 10, 2008 6:56 PM | Link to this

al-Gitmo:

Researchers from Spain have found a strong and independent link between cannabis use and the onset of psychosis at a younger age.

Now if they only find a cure, we can get you on board with the Repug party.

You’ll really like our veep, dude!

By Mrs.Godzilla

September 10, 2008 6:58 PM | Link to this

Jay,

If not “racial Insensitivity” then what should we call it? How about thoughtless?

The quote seems to be, ” “Do they have any blacks in Idaho? They don’t have many”.

If he had said instead, “Do they have any Swedish-Americans in Idaho? They don’t have many” - implying it was my ethnic group that was entirely responsible for the situation - well- I would have gotten my underbyxor’s in a grupp. Ya sure.

Should he lose his job? I don’t think so.

Should he think about what he says before he says it? Apparently.

Should the two gentlemen meet face to face and come to a better solution? Tell ‘em lunch on me Sunday.

By @@

September 10, 2008 6:59 PM | Link to this

Now who was it that condemned Westmoreland for using the word “uppity”?

Oddly enough, Bill O’Reilly said that Westmoreland should apologize. I disagree.

I will be watching closely for those words I deem to be sexually or racially disparaging.

Democrats are definitely guilty of sexually disparaging comments against one of their own and one of ours too. Come to think of it, they won’t tolerate any woman who goes up against OBlahMa. Is it safe to say that OBlahMa is a sexist?

I sure think so.

By Paul

September 10, 2008 7:00 PM | Link to this

Jay,

Perhaps it’s the way the article was written, but I did not read “minority” discipline regarding the Idaho example. The lead states Wilbanks came under fire for comments made about the disproportionate discipline of minority students.

The article states “The superintendent’s leadership was called into question last month when he made controversial comments during a school board workshop on discipline.”

This doesn’t say minority discipline. Just discipline.

“An administrator told the school board student discipline is a problem for school districts nationwide except in Idaho, according to a study. Wilbanks then asked the administrator: “Do they have any blacks in Idaho? They don’t have many.””

I read it that there was a workshop on discipline, Idaho was cited as the one state without a student discipline problem (it did not say ‘minority’) and Wilbanks’s rejoinder implied as the state has few blacks of course there’s not a discipline problem.

Not trying to parse words or be difficult. If it was poorly written and the workshop was on minority discipline then I agree with you. If the topic under discussion when Idaho was cited was simply ‘discipline’ then I’ll have to disagree.

RW-(the original)

Obama doesn’t imply Republicans are attacking him with racism. He says they will attack him (a prediction) not because of racism, though, as “he doesn’t look like the Founding Fathers as depicted on currency refers to experience, his history (Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs). David Axelrod did say it was his newness. Oh, and he’s African American.

Link: LA Times Blog

Please, don’t let this flare up again. I was only having a little fun. For this discussion the operative word is “will” as in “will attack” not present tense “attacking.”

See? Parsing comes in handy sometimes.

By RW-(the original)

September 10, 2008 7:15 PM | Link to this

Paul,

The statement which is basically a statement like the original I quoted, but just gets coded differently, is indeed stated as predictive, but since he keeps saying it you’re only left to think it’s happening and he’s trying to gently tamp it down or that he’s a hypersensitive, paranoid dunce that sees a racist Republican around every corner, but since he never turns the corner he just spouts out some newly minted version of the prediction.

The whole reason it is stated as predictive is so that he never has to give an example, but that first iteration was in June. Isn’t it time for him to say he was wrong rather than find some new language trick to impart the same message?

By RW-(the original)

September 10, 2008 7:25 PM | Link to this

Geez Paul,

Please give us a warning about the McCain picture they chose over at the LA Times next time. My rabbit is hiding under the couch after I opened that link and I’m thinking of zombie movies.

By Paul

September 10, 2008 7:27 PM | Link to this

RW-(the original)

It seems to me the instances have toned down a lot. Still and all, both candidates - in spite of everything discussed here - strike me as basically decent, honorable people. But human.

By JAY BOOKMAN

September 10, 2008 7:29 PM | Link to this

Paul, it was about minority discipline. They called the meeting to discuss statistics showing that minority students were disciplined more often that white students, and to explore why that might be the case.

By jasper

September 10, 2008 7:31 PM | Link to this

My wife is an administrator at one of the Gwinnett schools. We never have a boring dinner conversation. Racism is a tinder box issue here as both the administrators and black parents are on the defensive about every discipline issue. According to her and to Wilbank’s credit, emphasis over the past several years has been on strict adherence and enforcment of rules. There is a rule for every violation imaginable and a required consequence, very little subjective application. Most cases require a student’s signed admission. Big emphasis also on staying out of the AJC, that in and of itself is a huge racism deterrent.

By Paul

September 10, 2008 7:32 PM | Link to this

RW-(the original)

Yikes! But of course the LA Times, being an unbiased, just report the news organization, had no ulterior motive for running a picture like that!

By Paul

September 10, 2008 7:36 PM | Link to this

Jay,

Thanks for the clarification. In that case, I concur with your column.

Pleasant evening, all -

By T

September 10, 2008 7:41 PM | Link to this

By Paul

OMG!!!! Does he really look like that?

By RW-(the original)

September 10, 2008 7:41 PM | Link to this

Paul @ 7:27,

Maybe he decided that offending half the country in advance of any impropriety wasn’t the best strategy for someone that claims he’s uniquely qualified to bring us all together.

I sure would hate to live in a country where everybody agreed though. It seems to me like most of those all agree that they hate the dictator they live under.

By Jay

September 10, 2008 7:50 PM | Link to this

Jay, I disagree with you 99% of the time but we both agree on this one. I am deeply against racism when it rears it’s ugly head, but this is not racism.

By the NAACP pursueing the non-issue, it breeds resentment that will diminish their influence when real racism does occur.

Jay too

By @@

September 10, 2008 7:53 PM | Link to this

Right margins — “IS IT LOVE?” Take the quiz?

Flashing marquis at the top of this page?

“Will Obama be the first African American president?” Win a free laptop?

“Who will you vote for?” Win a dinner for two?

Am I seeing things?

By CJ

September 10, 2008 8:01 PM | Link to this

Jay Bookman,

This comment is off topic, but…

I think it’s safe to say that I agree with you at least as often as John McCain agrees with George Bush.

However, on the topic of oil speculators driving up prices, we haven’t been seeing eye to eye. While, of course, supply and consumer demand has been a factor, oil prices have been significantly more volatile than changes in such supply and demand. As far as I could tell, speculation could be the only explanation (you have disagreed).

FYI—Here’s a study that was just released that appears to support my speculation on the speculators.

By AJC/DNC Management

September 10, 2008 8:22 PM | Link to this

Uh, by the way, uh, has Oblahma ever put lipstick on a pig?

ew.

By "The Corporal"

September 10, 2008 8:35 PM | Link to this

The continued Balkanization of America. Everyone looking for an excuse to be offended. Don’t forget all of the other groups that are so easily offended not the least of which are Muslims now. Dark days ahead for this republic ……….

By AJC/DNC Management

September 10, 2008 8:38 PM | Link to this

Oh, Hair Plugs:

“Make no mistake about this,” Biden responded. “Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be vice president of the United States of America. Let’s get that straight. She’s a truly close personal friend, she is qualified to be president of the United States of America, she’s easily qualified to be vice president of the United States of America and quite frankly it might have been a better pick than me. But she’s first rate, I mean that sincerely, she’s first rate, so let’s get that straight.”

That was so sweet of you to say.

bwa.

By @@

September 10, 2008 8:39 PM | Link to this

Andy:

I just watched the last of O’Reilly interviewing OBlahMa.

I agree with your original assessment. It was all for show, nothing more. O’Reilly has spent more time talking about what the interview has done for him, as opposed to what benefit it served to the viewing public.

By Mike

September 10, 2008 8:47 PM | Link to this

Bookman is right, but I am confused. just a few days ago he was strongly implying that Westmoreland was a racist for daring to say “uppity” (instead of “clean” or “articulate”).

It would be swell if Jay would heed his own admonishment and restrain himself the next time his partisan impulses lead him to “cheapen the problem of racism and make it more difficult to generate public support the next time the real thing actually does rear its ugly head.”

It’s as if Bookman’s blog is actually written by two different people who don’t read each other’s entries.

By AJC/DNC Management

September 10, 2008 8:55 PM | Link to this

@@: I’ve only watched one short segment of this travesty, people have been talking lately about the supercollider bringing an end to the world, but I myself was more worried about the release of gas that these two clowns coming together would produce, tell me, did O’Pinko really laugh at Oblahma?

By "The Corporal"

September 10, 2008 8:55 PM | Link to this

To AJC/DNC Management

Good going! I just posted it on the other blog for today.

I think they are self-destructing !

By RW-(the original)

September 10, 2008 9:02 PM | Link to this

Oh sure now this clown tells the whole interview will run without breaking it up into tiny segments on Sunday.

AJC/DNC-M

O’Reilly wasn’t all that bad and he got to bloviate while Obama was uhhiin and uhming. Not much came out of it though except that I think Bill O has a new target for his affections.

By @@

September 10, 2008 9:12 PM | Link to this

did O’Pinko really laugh at Oblahma?

In that special way he has? Yea, he laughed at him.

Too much of Bill’s theatrical posturing and OBlahMa’s stuttering to gain any insight.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d give it a 4, and that’s being generous.

By AJC/DNC Management

September 10, 2008 9:17 PM | Link to this

RW: I know, from what little I saw, it looked like O’Pinko was getting down with his bad self and Oblahma was sort of coherent while denying that, even though he spent twenty years at Reverend Wrong’s church, he never knew the guy had issues with America.

But did the Groper laugh at him, like I heard?

By getalife "whiners"

September 10, 2008 10:01 PM | Link to this

Time to break out the nukes on the gop.

The Clintons.

By RW-(the original)

September 10, 2008 10:04 PM | Link to this

Jay B,

You may be interested in this piece since you have absolved Obama on this issue.

Meanwhile, below the radar, the Obama campaign pushed the race-baiting angle hard, rehearsing and sometimes inventing instances of alleged Clintonian racial insensitivity. A memo prepared by the South Carolina campaign and circulated to supporters rehashed the King-Johnson matter, while it also spliced together statements of Bill Clinton’s to make it seem as if he had given a speech that “implied Hillary Clinton is stronger than Nelson Mandela.” (The case, with its snippets and ellipses, was absurd on its face.) The memo also claimed, in a charge soon widely repeated, that he had demeaned Obama as “a kid” because he had called Obama’s account of his opposition to the war in Iraq a fanciful “fairy tale.”And a few reporters, while pushing the Obama campaign’s line that black voters had credible concerns about the Clintons’ remarks, had begun to notice that the Obama campaign was doing its utmost to fuel the racial flames. “There’s no question that there’s politics here at work too,” said Jonathan Martin of Politico. “It helps [Obama’s] campaign to… push these issues into the fore in a place like South Carolina.”

By AmVet

September 10, 2008 10:07 PM | Link to this

As Obama is half-white (I know, I know, which half?) are the racially charged comments made by him and directed at him by others only semi-racist?

By Mike

September 10, 2008 10:11 PM | Link to this

“By getalife “whiners” September 10, 2008 10:01 PM | Link to this Time to break out the nukes on the gop.

The Clintons.”

LOL. I like the Clinton’s but they made tons of mistakes during Hillary’s campaign and more importantly, they don’t want Obama to win for both political and personal reasons.

Even if Hillary was at the top of her game, she has very high negatives and their reintroduction would undermine Obama’s change argument, particularly when standing next to Biden.

He needs to do something really bold like lay out an all-star Cabinet that is fully on-board including guys like Chuck Hagel and Al Gore.

Come to think of it, Al Gore has a lot of leverage and has been really quiet. Maybe he wants to run in 2012 too.

Regardless, Obama needs to do something big himself, not rely on Bill to rescue him.

By getalife "whiners"

September 10, 2008 10:21 PM | Link to this

Mike.

The President is hitting the campaign trail then Hillary will finish them off.

October surprise.

Boom.

By Gwinnett Liberal

September 10, 2008 10:24 PM | Link to this

“This is stupid. By claiming “racial insensitivity” in this case, J.P Portalatin cheapens the problem of racism and makes it more difficult to generate public support the next time the real thing actually does rear its ugly head.”

I don’t know, Jay. If I were a parent of a black kid in Gwinnett I would think that disproportionate discipline is kind of a big deal. I can tell you that as a member of the Gwinnett criminal justice community, that blacks, latinos and young people are profiled, singled out and disproportionately punished. It is a disgrace.

By T

September 10, 2008 10:29 PM | Link to this

By AmVet

LOL. LOLLOL. LMAO. That was great.. I’m gonna have to use that. No copyright infringment. ok. LOL.

By AJC/DNC Management

September 11, 2008 5:37 AM | Link to this

The federal judge overseeing the corruption trial of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) refused his lawyers’ requests to throw out the case and indicated the trial will go ahead this month in Washington, D.C.-Urinal/DNC

So when does the Tom Delay trial start?

That’s the one I want to watch.

By AJC/DNC Management

September 11, 2008 5:47 AM | Link to this

Politicizing a sacred anniversary:

9/11: SEVEN YEARS LATER: Osama’s elusiveness in focus on anniversary-Urinal/Jihad

While millions of Americans remember that terrible day 7 years ago and memorialize the 3000 dead, thee Urinal and al Qaeda mourn a dead guy.

By AJC/DNC Management

September 11, 2008 5:51 AM | Link to this

Victory eludes us still, seven years later- Invasion of Iraq has served notion we want to conquer Islamic world, steal its oil.-Kookman, AJC/Jihad

I guess Bushie wasn’t lying to us, seven years ago, when he said this war could last for decades.

And what Bush and no one else could conceive of when this fight started, a fight not of our own making, that for seven long years, innocent Americans would not suffer again at the hands of Islamic terrorism.

That it it’s own is a victory.

Above all else.

By Analchord

September 11, 2008 5:59 AM | Link to this

Actually, what Amvet said goes directly to the crux of the racial problem in the USA. Half white? Which half gets persecuted by the antiquities of hate?

You, sir, would roll at a KKK cross-burning warm up act.

None of you pointy heads understand our culture. This is what Jay Bookman gets for coddling trolls. Oprah had to stop inviting Klan members on her show after she realized that you cant coddle trolls, cause they dont get it either, and they’ll just spread their message of hate.

Be like Oprah, Jay. Stop coddling Trolls.

ISAIDSTOPCODDLINGTROLLS!!!

By Larry

September 11, 2008 9:23 AM | Link to this

That same report also documented that mixed race kids are statistically UNDER-represented in discipline panels. The percentage of GCPS students of Asian decent is a full 90 percent less than what the general population suggests it should be. This is racist?

Incidentally GodHatesTrash, you are the only person I have ever heard refer to Portalatin as a “negro” of any type, because everyone else seems to know that he is Hispanic. Your ignorance is breathtaking.