[ED NOTE: You can find the background to Willie Colon's essay over at This is what racists call a Merry Christmas: "Illegals in my yard".]

STOP HATE SPEECH AGAINST LATINOS
by Willie Colón

STOP HATE SPEECH AGAINST LATINOS
23 December 2009

Feliz Navidad!

The days of subtle discrimination are over. At least for Latinos it is.

The dehumanization of our community is not a laughing matter. This is wholesale discrimination against all Latinos and an affront to any anyone who understands that bias, racism, and xenophobia have no place in our society. The use of a famous Puerto Rican artist’s song is no mistake. The intention is to smear all Latinos is clear. There are “undocumented individuals“ from all countries around the world in the U.S. but with a stroke of the pen they have found a way to make the term Hispanic or Latino equate to ILLEGAL.

Using an internationally popular Spanish language Christmas song as a vehicle, racism has reared its ugly head again.

I take deep umbrage to having songs depicting Latinos as disease carrying sub-humans seeking free human organ transplants. If this song was about any other ethnic group: Italians, Irish, Jewish, African American there would be protests in the streets.

We must demand respect and am asking that the FCC take measures against the use of this musical hate speech. We Latinos should take sanctions against broadcasters that allow this filth to be presented as should we boycott their sponsors.

 more this way»

The Peabody Awards are out and my first thought is, "Why in the bloody hell are they giving an award to NBC for their Olympics coverage?" But then there's well deserved awards like the one to YouTube and two which I didn't comment (because I don't watch the shows): Lost and Entourage.

Other winners include :

NBC Coverage of 2008 Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony and Zhang Yimou (NBC)
I thought it was actually quite crappy the coverage with restricted web access and fucked up advertisement breaks.

This American Life: The Giant Pool of Money (Public Radio International/NPR)
Absolutely deserved. It is such an amazing documentary about the factors involved in the current economic crisis that I find myself referring to it constantly as background historical and theoretical information.

Coverage of 2008 Presidential Primary Campaigns and Debates (CNN)
CNN had indeed the best team covering the elections.

The New York Times Web site (www.nytimes.com)
Their's may be an example of the future of online newspapers but they still suck at attribution and linking back to bloggers (in the main newspaper articles, not the blogs. Their bloggers are actually quite cool.)

Saturday Night Live Political Satire, 2008 (NBC)
Sadly, the only funny stuff to happen on SNL in like 20 years ... maybe with the exception of "Dick-In-A-Box".

Avatar: The Last Airbender (NICK)
Best. Animation. Show. EVER! Ok, not the best ever because their ending actually sucked a little (am totally opposed to Aang and Katara getting it on. Still, it's really like nothing we've had in kids TV in this country. It is truly exceptional and brilliant.

Onion News Network (www.theonion.com)
This truly blew me away, but ONN is like extremely Daily Show. They really are pushing parody and satire to the limit.

YouTube (www.youtube.com)
Broadcasting and cablecasting will never be the same no thanks to YouTube. For that, they should get a Noble Prize in Computer Science as well.

From The Peabody Awards :: An International Competition for Electronic Media, honoring achievement in Television, Radio, Cable and the Web :: Administered by University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication:
 more this way»

Allison and Nancy have a killer post over at TechPresident titled, "Twitter: An Antidote to Election Day Voting Problems?". It's brilliant and you have to read it top to bottom for the points it makes on : Empowering Self-Organized Volunteers, Sharing Patterns, Serving as Mobile Legal Aide, Smart Routing Around Resource Gaps and Guiding the Watchdogs.

I had joked about a week ago that it would behoove the United States to have Jimmy Carter  invite international election observers and have him to for our country what he does in every other nascent or 3rd World democracy. Yet it dawned on my we, the voters of the United States, can open the US electoral process to the world by using our cell phones and digital cameras.
 more this way»

Brave New Films is hosting a live primary coverage over at their Elections 2008 livestream site. I will be on at 10PM sharing my punditry with the world and Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks show on Air America.

The show starts at 7PM and will start lining up bloggers by 7:10PM. Here's the schedule :

7:10: Robert Greenwald, Brave New Films
7:40: Matthew Yglesias, The Atlantic
7:50: Robin Abcarian, L.A. Times
8:00: Billy Wimsatt, League of Young Voters
8:10: Rachel Sklar, The Huffington Post
8:20: Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake
8:30: Jim Dean, Democracy For America
8:40: Steve Clemons, The Note
9:00: Lane Hudson, News for the Left
9:10: Isaiah Poole, Campaign for America's Future
9:40: James Rucker, Color of Change
10:00: Liza Sabater, Culture Kitchen
10:10: Eric Boehlert, Media Matters
 more this way»

I am running out to the NPR studio here in Manhattan to record another session of News and Notes with Farai Chideya.

We will talk about how steroids brought the downfall of Marion Jones, an MTV poll that says that white youth is happier than black, Juanita Bynum's messy divorce and .... prepare your selves ... why I hate the word Hispanic.

TADA!

Tune in today to your local NPR News and Notes schedule or catch the whole show online after 3pm.