Bad for whom, Governor?

Depending on where you stand or sit, the Civil Rights era was how bad, on a scale of 1-10?  Well, the governor of Mississippi - Haley Barbour - told the Weekly Standard's Andrew Ferguson, this week that he couldn't "remember it as being that bad." Guess not, if you're a white male and raised with a sense of superiority.

In fact, Barbour says when he went to hear Dr. Martin Luther King in 1962, he and his friends spent more time watching girls because they really couldn't hear what Dr. King was saying.  Wonder why he even bothered to go?  The governor certainly didn't explain what prompted so many "black and white" people to show up to hear Dr. King.

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour

Interestingly, Governor Barbour's comments echo what several surveys out of the University of Michigan reveal - White people tend to have a different perception than Black people about racial progress.  Given the governor's memory of what it was like growing up during a pivotal period in Mississippi, it's probably just as likely that his top down view regarding racial inequality... is unlikely to change should he become the GOP candidate for President in 2012.

White House, Dark Lies...

With all due respect, the White House and the Obama Administration need a Sociologist lurking around and clarifying many of the stories being spewed by those who still can't accept that someone of color is being called - Mr. President.  More and more, everyday, dark lies are being embedded in fictional narratives presented as fact.  You see, sociologists could help because we, are passionately obligated to study relationships.  We focus on relationships in groups, organizations, and institutions. It would help the Administration, right now, if there were someone on staff directing a systematic analysis of the relationship between truth and haters or Conservatives or myth makers.  Why?  Because the first question a sociologist would ask is:  Who benefits from a false narrative.

By having a sociologist in the West Wing, for instance, a narrative analysis of the claims of those opposing a Muslim mosque in Manhattan near Ground Zero, would have revealed a stunning revelation:  Muslims already pray near Ground Zero, and, at the Pentagon, too, where 9-11 attacks occurred.  In other words,  according to the Associate Press, "Islam is already very much a part of the World Trade Center neighborhood."  There is already a mosque near Ground Zero.  

So how did the dark lie that a mosque is being proposed for the first time to be built near the site of the September 11, 2001 attacks flourish?  Bloggers and pundits who drew attention to their sites with non-factual claims.  The social media influence certainly grew when a former speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives climbed on board to give credence to the belief that Islamic radicalism is behind building, what in truth, would be another mosque in lower Manhattan.

        
 "The folks who want to build this mosque -- who are really radical Islamists who want to triumphally prove that they can build a mosque right next to a place where 3,000 Americans were killed by radical Islamists -- those folks don't have any interest in reaching out to the community. They're trying to make a case about supremacy." -- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a potential 2012 presidential candidate.



 Who benefits from such untruths?   What is prompting some bloggers spewing religious hatred?  We need a new and truthful narrative to set the record straight.  We need more sociologists asking different kinds of questions about the relationship between hate and truth.

For more truths, see:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/searchS/?q=mosque+in+manhattan