The roughly 800-word letter, which has resurfaced via various blogs, websites, Twitter and Facebook, is a response to a missive from Colonel P.H. Anderson, Jourdan’s former master back in Big Spring, Tennessee. Apparently, Col. Anderson had written Jourdan asking him to come on back to the big house to work.

In a tone that could be described either as “impressively measured” or “the deadest of deadpan comedy,” the former slave, in the most genteel manner, basically tells the old slave master to kiss his rear end. He laments his being shot at by Col. Anderson when he fled slavery, the mistreatment of his children and that there “was never pay-day for the Negroes any more than for the horses and cows.”

Below is Jourdan’s letter in full, as it appears on lettersofnote.com. To take a look at what appears to be a scan of the original letter, which appeared in an August 22, 1865 edition of the New York Daily Tribune, click here. As Letters Of Note points out, the newspaper account makes clear that the letter was dictated.

Dayton, Ohio,
August 7, 1865

To My Old Master, Colonel P.H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee
Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin’s to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.

I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get twenty-five dollars a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy,—the folks call her Mrs. Anderson,—and the children—Milly, Jane, and Grundy—go to school and are learning well. The teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday school, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated. Sometimes we overhear others saying, “Them colored people were slaves” down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks; but I tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Colonel Anderson. Many darkeys would have been proud, as I used to be, to call you master. Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.

As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost-Marshal-General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for our clothing, and three doctor’s visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams’s Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq., Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night; but in Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire.

In answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up, and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve—and die, if it come to that—than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood. The great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits.

Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.

From your old servant,

Jourdon Anderson.

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The frustrating ironies of being Afro-Latina hit Yuly Marshall with stunning regularity: At work at a Miami hospital, Hispanic patients of the Cuban-born radiology technician usually assume she’s African American, asking her, “Where did you learn to speak Spanish like that?” and expressing shock—even skepticism—that she’s really Latina. Other times, fellow Latinos will disparage African Americans in front of her with phrases like, “What can you expect from negros?” and then turn around and tell her, as if paying her a compliment, “But you’re not like that. You’re one of us.”

When Marshall talks about race issues with African American coworkers, they often tell her she has no idea what it’s really like to be black. Yet a few years ago, when Marshall dated a lighter-skinned black Latino, his parents persuaded him to break it off because of her dark skin. “They told him to find a white girl so he could adelantar la raza,” Marshall says, using a phrase that roughly means to ‘push the race forward’ by marrying a light-skinned person and producing children lighter than yourself.

“Sometimes I think, ‘When is this going to end?’” says Marshall, 31. “But I love my skin color. God created me this way, and I’m just as good as any other person.”

That healthy sense of pride and self-awareness may be on the rise among young U.S. Afro-Latinas, despite the kind of veiled racism, ignorance and denial—from Latinos and non-Latinos alike—that can make everyday life a challenge for Marshall and others, say Afro-Latino activists and experts.

Part of the reason may be that there are more Afro-Latinas with high-profile careers than ever before—including Zoe Saldana, Lauren Vélez, Dania Ramirez, La La Anthony, Arlenis Sosa, Joan Smalls and Soledad O’Brien—and they are vocal about their heritage and race. “As a Latina, I think we should be very proud of our heritage,” Zoe Saldana has said. “We tend to look for European roots and reject the indigenous and the African, and that’s disgusting. Being Latin is being a mix of everything. I want my people not to be insecure, and to adore what we are because it’s beautiful.”

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Zoe Saldana certainly has it all, or so it would seem. Her café au lait skin is as flawless as it is pretty, her figure is toned and slim, and the powers that be in Hollywood appear willing and ready to throw big bucks behind any project she appears in. Still there’s one thing she’s oddly lacking: a major fashion-magazine cover to accompany the release of her first solo feature film.

Colombiana marks Saldana’s initial foray into the “kick ass” female superhero role and the first time she’s carried a major film all on her own—a feat only the likes of Angelina Jolie, the grand dame of female action heroes, has been able to pull off in recent years.

Stylish and sleek advertisements for the film that casts Saldana as a revenge-seeking hit woman were enticing enough to secure second place for the movie at the U.S box office this weekend, even as many on the East Coast faced the wrath of Hurricane Irene. With tickets sales of over $11 million, Colombiana’ came in only second to persistent fan favorite, The Help.

Zoe is Hollywood’s new ‘it’ girl, there’s no doubt about that,’’ says Marvet Britto of the Britto Agency, an entertainment branding and image consultant company. ‘’She is on the short list of actresses for most of the projects directors are talking about. That can only grow and get bigger.’’

Pretty impressive for a woman of color, and even more so given that Saldana didn’t receive one of the major advertising perks usually guaranteed for a major film such as Colombiana and to the young, beautiful, and hot in Tinseltown. Magazine covers aplenty. Hollywood is without doubt an industry driven by the media that surrounds it. Movies and the stars selected to appear in them survive, thrive, and often become household names not just for the roles they take on but by the deluge of media opportunities that come along with a hit film or television show.

It’s hard to deny that the massive popularity actresses such as Jennifer Aniston, Kate Hudson, and Gwyneth Paltrow enjoy is primarily fed by the numerous magazine covers they grace each month and not by their performances in critically acclaimed films.

So what about Zoe? In 2010 Saldana was famously absent from Vanity Fair’s annual Hollywood cover, even though in 2009 she’d gained the distinction of becoming the only actress to have three movies in the top 20 for three consecutive weeks. One of those films, Avatar, became the highest-grossing film of all time.

Last year designer Calvin Klein tapped her to star in his Envy underwear ad campaign. An impressive feat for any actress in Hollywood these days, though it appears not impressive enough for the New York editors of the top magazines.

This month Vogue, Bazaar, Marie Claire, and Elle opted to go with the tried and true in their selections of famous faces for their September issues, and that didn’t include Zoe. Saldana managed to land on the covers of special-interest magazines such as Ebony and Latina.

‘’The magazine industry has always been hesitant to put a woman of color or black woman on the cover of a major fashion magazine because they don’t sell well,’’ says Bethann Hardison, fashion advocate, former model, and owner of a modeling agency that bears her name. ‘’That hasn’t changed over the years as far as the publishing world is concerned. It’s still very much about blonde hair and blue eyes.’’

Though Saldana’s heritage is both Puerto Rican and Dominican, and she regularly touts her Spanish heritage to all who’ll listen, she’s routinely considered African-American, largely due to her smooth brown complexion and dark-brown locks. Unlike with her Latina peers Jennifer Lopez and Jessica Alba, who both have slightly more European features, Saldana’s browner hue is still searching for its place of favor with top magazine editors in the U.S.

Interestingly enough, Saldana’s face recently graced the July cover of Russian Vogue and the February issue of Italian Vogue.

‘’She may not say she’s black, but black is in there somewhere,’’ said Hardison. ‘’And black is what they see when they get ready to decide who’s the cover of their magazines. It’s not fair, but it’s the way it is.’’

Others in the fashion industry point out that while both Beyoncé and Rihanna appear on Instyle and Glamour magazine covers this month, both women are singers, which is a more traditionally accepted role for women of color. Dominating the box office is not.

Michael Schultz, an African-American director and producer, says he’s rather perplexed at Saldana’s lack of appeal in editors’ offices and at the newsstand. The director of such films as Carwash and television shows like In Plain Sight says the Dominican starlet has replaced Halle Berry as the woman of color of choice and in demand in Hollywood.

‘’I frankly think she is the new Halle Berry with more talent,’’ says Schultz. ‘’And the white boys think she’s hot, so the sky is the limit for her with the right moves.’’

Does she have them? While she and her management team have thus far been savvy and calculating in choosing film roles that showcase her acting skills and beauty, she’ll need the surrounding media support if she’s ever to skyrocket to the land of Jolie or higher.

“She’s a charming girl and an actress with a presence,” says African-American film historian Donald Bogle. ‘’But without those magazine covers, it will be very hard for her to go to the next level.’’

Britto says Saldana had the great misfortune of opening in a major film during one of the most vital months for fashion. September issues of women’s publications are usually the largest of the year and feature hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of ads showcasing fall attire.

‘’They weren’t willing to take a chance on someone that hadn’t proven themselves a big seller in this time period,’’ says Britto. ‘’They must have someone who they know will sell and sell well for the September issue.’’

Hardison sees the Saldana magazine dilemma through slightly different lenses. A former model who for years has been a top advocate for the increase of brown and black models on the runway and in print ads, she thinks the calendar month is of little consequence.

‘’I’ve thought about this for a while and I’ve come to the realization that a brown face just doesn’t resonate with nonminorities when it’s on the cover of magazines,’’ said Hardison, “so they won’t buy it.’’

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The transgression occurred on August 20th, in a comedy club in Phoenix, Arizona. In part of his response to his heckler, Williams launched into a tirade against Mexicans living in the United States.

“Mothaf*ckas think they can live in this country and pledge allegiance to another country… Do you remember when white people used to say go back to Africa? And we’d have to tell them we don’t want to? So if you love Mexico, bitch, get the f*ck over there!” he said.

William’s comments have provoked outrage from some of his fans on YouTube and from members of the Latino community, including prominent Mexican-American author Luis Rodriguez.

What do you think? Watch the comedian’s statements below:

story from Huffington Post’s Black Voices

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From conservative pundits constant slip-of-the-tongue references to Obama as “Osama,” Glenn Beck claiming the president “hates white people” and even Donald Trump’s over-hyped demands to see the president’s birth certificate, critics have levied some very brazen, almost radical assaults against Obama.

And while some say it’s just politics as usual, others are questioning whether race is making Obama the most disrespected U.S. president in history.

And for those who want to say it’s just partisan politics as usual, or just the kind of thing that goes with being an unpopular president, let’s consider a few low-lights:

The “You lie!” shout during the president’s speech on health care reform before the joint session of Congress in Sept. 2009

The recent posturing, walk-outs and tantrums thrown over the debt ceiling debate, which eventually led to our country’s credit being downgraded.

Newt Gingrich referring to the president as “the food stamp president” and saying that Pres. Obama “knows how to get the whole country to resemble Detroit.”

Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn — who supposedly enjoys a warm relationship with the president, saying he doesn’t think President Obama wants to destroy the country, but “his intent is to create dependency because it worked so well for him as an African-American male” who “received tremendous advantage from” welfare programs.

Congressman Mitch McConnell’s bold proclamation that he wants to be Senate Majority Leader to make sure that Obama is a one-term president.

Rush Limbaugh saying that he wants to see this president fail. (Note: Limbaugh has modified that statement to say he meant his “policies.” But when it was said, it was less than a year into Obama’s presidency and he was still cleaning up the mess from the previous president’s policies, which Limbaugh had very little to say about during the Bush era).

Former Fox News host Glenn Beck declaring on the air that the president “hates white people” and “the white culture.”

Television personality Donald Trump’s over-the-top taunting of the president, hyping unprecedented demands to see the president’s birth certificate.

The shouts of “We want our country back!” by the Tea Party.

And the frequent habit of not calling the president by his proper honorific: “President Obama”, rather than just “Obama” — by quite a few elected officials, pundits and others.

President Barack Obama asked to deliver his economic speech to the joint session of Congress next Wednesday. House Speaker John Boehner, told him no. He’ll have to do it on the 8th. Boehner cited a scheduling conflict, but the real “conflict” appears to be the GOP presidential debate scheduled for the same date. The president has been forced to capitulate — and will now have to compete with the opening night of the NFL season for viewers.

What may seem like a minor slight underscores the crux of the problem in Washington: A blatant, sustained and unabashed disrespect of the president of the United States of America.

And it is historic.

Never in our nation’s history has a president been publicly denied access to the chamber for an address, according to the House historian. This is just the latest in a string of eyebrow-raising and even historic slights.

This negative “attention” that this president seems to attract cuts across partisan lines. Even before he took office, Joe Biden referred to him as the first “clean, articulate” African-American candidate. (Which we assume was meant as a compliment).

And let’s not forget Bill Clinton, who chalked up Obama’s win in South Carolina to being similar to Jesse Jackson’s wins there in the 80s and then had the audacity to cry foul, saying the race card was played on him when Obama supporters called him out.

There was also his Senate mentor Joe Lieberman, who blocked the public option in the health care bill. And the near-deafening silence by high-ranking Democrats, including Senate leader Harry Reid, while all of this is going on.

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The question among some of us who love this country and want to see it succeed is what is all of this really all about? Because it just seems as if there is a pissing contest going on, but the only ones getting wet are the American people; many of whom are suffering through the worst economy of their lives.

Some may call this obstructionism. But I think there’s something else going on here. Now I’m not saying it’s racism. But if it quacks like a duck and walks like a duck…

At the very least it’s un-American. Because while all of this is going on, Americans are suffering.

This shouldn’t be about President Obama. All 535 lawmakers who were sent to Washington to make a difference must ask themselves this question: is opposing everything this president does for the sake of opposition, or worse for a more insidious reason, helping this nation get back on her feet?

If the answer is no, then they need to knock it off. And if they’re not going to do it, it’s time for the silent majority to do it for them. Enough is enough!

article written By Karen Hunter

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“NTC seems to confuse black people with mercenaries,” AU chairman Jean Ping said Monday, referring to the rebels’ National Transitional Council. “All blacks are mercenaries. If you do that, it means (that the) one-third of the population of Libya, which is black, is also mercenaries. They are killing people, normal workers, mistreating them.”

He added: “Maybe it’s looters, uncontrolled forces. But then the government should say something, condemn this. We want to see a signal that the African workers that are there, they should be evacuated.”

Ping’s comments follow concerns from international rights groups about beatings and detentions of immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa.

“I really fear vigilante justice and retribution and attacks by civilians against other civilians,” said Richard Sollom, deputy director of Physicians for Human Rights, who is back from a June fact-finding mission in Misrata, Libya.

Sollom said Monday that his Boston-based group knew of about 500 Darfuris “who are desperately trying to get out of Libya. They have no money, they are basically homeless because they are from Darfur, and they very much fear for their lives because of the color of their skin.”

Guest workers from Sudan, Chad, Darfur and other sub-Saharan African locales have been targeted in part because Gadhafi did hire foreign African mercenaries, Sollom said.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said Sunday that the evidence it has collected so far “strongly suggests that (Moammar Gadhafi’s) government forces went on a spate of arbitrary killing as Tripoli was falling.”

So far, there have been no specific allegations of atrocities carried out by rebel fighters, though human rights groups are continuing to investigate some unsolved cases.

Reporters for The Associated Press have witnessed several episodes of rebels mistreating detainees or sub-Saharan Africans suspected of being hired Gadhafi guns, including an incident where about a dozen black men were detained and some were punched.

Council spokesman Abdel-Hafiz Ghoga denied Ping’s claims that rebels were responsible for such killings.

“These allegations have been made during the early days of the revolution,” he said. “This never took place.”

He added: “If happened, it will be the Gadhafi forces. Until now, we keeping finding mass graves of the newly liberated cities.”

Libyan rebels appear to have secured the capital after a week of fierce fighting with loyalists to Gadhafi.

“It is over. The NTC took power … they won,” Ping said. “And now it is time for both sides to stop all the killing.”

The AU has so far refused to recognize the council, although some of its member states, including Nigeria and Ethiopia, have done so. The United Nations has urged the AU to “encourage Libya’s new leadership” and help unlock billions of dollars in frozen assets that the Libyan rebels say they urgently need to provide social services.

But many African nations have long-held ties with Gadhafi and the AU has had difficulties taking a unanimous position on Libya.

Ping also called for an immediate cease-fire and the formation of a coalition government that reflected the diversity of Libya. He said the world had ignored the AU’s suggestions about Libya’s crisis but that their roadmap — which calls for a cease-fire but not for Gadhafi to step down — was still relevant.

Ping said some of the Libyan rebel leaders insulted African countries by saying they have favored Gadhafi.

“The (rebels’) attitude has been negative all along. I went to Benghazi. We have treated them equally,” he said.

Ping said the AU will work with the U.N. and any other partners, including NATO, to find a political solution for Libya that leads to democracy.

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Holmes was born in West Memphis, Arkansas. He was part of the Leon H. Sullivan Summit, a biannual gathering of world leaders, in 2008 and visited the United Republic of Tanzania. In the African country, he visited orphanages and impoverished communities. Many of these visits were reported on by CNN.

He has also spent time volunteering in Costa Rica.

“I haven’t come in contact with a lot of blatant racism in my life. Yes, I’ve been called the N-word. To be honest, it never really upset me because as soon as that word comes out of someone’s mouth, I’m pretty sure that I’ve won the argument. That person has just confirmed how ignorant they are. I don’t necessarily consider most people racist. I have, however, seen a lot of racial bias. What I mean by that is people don’t hate me because of the color of my skin, but they simply don’t see me as an equal. Some may say that by not seeing me as an equal, that’s the very definition of racism. Rather, I believe people have so many misconceptions and preconceived notions about black people. They make assumptions based on the color of my skin.”

He also recounted a story about an incident at a Bay Area car wash when he owned what he described as a large, white SUV with chrome wheels and tinted windows:

“One day a man came over to me as I was washing my truck and said, “Man, I just gotta know. What do you guys do to have nice cars like that?” He was a nice enough guy and wasn’t really nasty when he asked the question. He truly seemed puzzled about how a young, black man could be driving such a nice car. He went on to ask me if I played for the San Francisco 49ers. Again, I’m 5′11″ and 165 lbs. No, I don’t play for the 49ers. The guy’s first thought at seeing a young, black man in a nice car was not that I could have gotten it through education and hard work. That is what I mean by bias.”

Holmes is divorced from his college sweetheart Amy. They have one teenage daughter together.During the weekend of March 6, 2010 in St. Lucia he married an Atlanta-area attorney

source

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By computing the latent “physical attractiveness factor” of study subjects, using a tool called “Add Health” that he doesn’t explain in the post, blogger Satoshi Kanazawa concluded:

[W]omen of all races are on average more physically attractive than the “average” Add Health respondent, except for black women. As the following graph shows, black women are statistically no different from the “average” Add Health respondent, and far less attractive than white, Asian, and Native American women.

Kanazawa (who is also the author of a book called Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters) then muses about the possible explanations for the “markedly lower average level of physical attractiveness among black women.” He disregards differences in BMI and “the race difference in intelligence” (what?), and speculates, “The only thing I can think of that might potentially explain the lower average level of physical attractiveness among black women is testosterone.  Africans on average have higher levels of testosterone than other races.”
“The only thing I can think of”? Really? The blog’s presentation of the allegedly scientific findings had a decidedly informal tone, especially given the highly contentious conclusions. It struck us as so outrageous that we almost thought it was a hoax of some sort, and we double-checked the URL to make sure it didn’t include “The Onion.”

Was this why it was suddenly pulled down from the site? We called the publication to find out, and a staffer confirmed that the posting had been deliberately removed (adding that it had received so much traffic that at one point the site went down) but gave no further information other than to refer us to the site’s editors.

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Well, that Mysterious Unidentified Black Man (MUBM), who commits all the crimes white people don’t want to admit to, has struck again in Philly. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer: A Philadelphia police sergeant who said he was shot last month by an unidentified black man in the city’s Overbrook section actually fabricated the entire story and shot himself, Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said this morning. Sgt. Robert Ralston, a 21-year veteran of the department, admitted to homicide detectives early this morning that his previously reported story was false.

Ramsey called the incident “a terrible and embarrassing chapter in our history.” Asked why Ralston concocted the tale and injured himself, Ramsey said he didn’t know.

Allison Steele, a writer for the Inquirer, reported on Tuesday:

Ralston will be suspended for 30 days with the intent to dismiss, Ramsey said. Ralston, married with five children, will face no criminal charges in the case, because he was offered immunity in exchange for his confession.
Ralston will also have to pay the cost of the massive manhunt that was sparked by his tale on April 5, Ramsey said.

In a frantic search for the MUBM, police spent hours combing a West Philadelphia neighborhood for possible suspects, although no one was formally questioned or arrested. The Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge No. 5, had even posted a $10,000 reward for information leading to the suspect.

continue

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I already pretty much thought so already, I mean George did say that poor black people make him uncomfortable..at least he was being honest..this is horrible and very embrassing to our country..watch

During their first joint visit to Haiti this week, George W. Bush appears to have wiped his hand on Bill Clinton’s shirt after shaking hands with a crowd of Haitians.

If that is what happened — Breitbart.TV first raised the question after seeing the video below — it builds on Barack Obama’s story of Bush’s compulsive need for hand sanitizer. But whatever Bush’s reason, it looks pretty bad.

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