Today’s blacklisted American: Black scientist blacklisted for doing good research

 By  Robert Zimmerman | BehindTheBlack.com

Hakeem Oluseyi, Space Science Education Lead for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate

They’re coming for you next: Today’s blacklist column describes an effort to not only cancel from history the man who led NASA for almost the entire 1960s space race, but to also blackball a scientist for doing good research that proved the campaign was not based on any facts.

Shortly before the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope last year, a petition was instigated to get it renamed because of accusations that Webb had persecuted homosexuals during his term as NASA administrator in the 1960s. As is now typical of our modern bankrupt intellectual class, as soon as this petition was issued more than 1,700 people signed it, all accepting at face value its accusations against Webb without any further research.

One scientist, who happened to be black, took a more detailed look at those accusations however and found them to be spurious. As Hakeem Oluseyi wrote:

In full disclosure, I never met James Webb, who died in 1992. I have no idea what was in his heart and mind. But what I can say conclusively is that there is zero evidence that Webb is guilty of the allegations against him.

Rather than exposing a bigot — as Webb was described in two popular articles reporting this story in 2015 — my research suggests that the purveyors of these allegations wrongly accused an innocent man who was, among more well-known achievements, a hero of diversity and inclusion in American government. He worked with Lyndon Johnson and John F. Kennedy to use NASA facilities in America’s southern states to promote racial integration and equal opportunity in employment.

Oluseyi notes at length the facts. He also notes at length the close-mindedness of the intellectual community on this subject. Except for one person outside of himself in academia, no one was willing to research the history in detail. That one person did no research himself, merely wondered, based on the nature of the accusations presented against Webb, whether more research was needed.

Did Oluseyi’s work open the minds of this close-minded science community? Of course not. The initial campaign against Webb was instigated by physicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein of the University of New Hampshire. In response to Oluseyi she and her allies immediately launched a new campaign, to get him blackballed as well.

Oluseyi was soon also tagged and said that he has been unable to have letters published in the journal that attempted to point out the allegedly flawed evidence cited by Prescod-Weinstein and others. So, not only are journals declaring the matter effectively closed, but they will not allow readers to see opposing views.

Even former colleagues publicly denounced Oluseyi. George Mason’s Peter Plavchan, who said that he welcomed Oluseyi to that school as a visiting professor, tweeted a note to Prescod-Weinstein that “I do believe [Oluseyi] owes you and LGBTQ+ astronomers an apology.”

As a space historian who has interviewed numerous people and researched extensively the early history of NASA, reviewing much of the same original source material that Oluseyi referenced, I very confidently endorse Oluseyi’s conclusions. Webb, like almost everyone at NASA at that time, was not a bigot and did whatever he could to end discrimination within the agency he headed. He was also an imperfect human being, and to demand he meet today’s standards or to condemn him for failing to achieve perfect racial/sexual harmony in his life is not only unjust, it is unrealistic and extremely hateful.

In the end, this story — like all my blacklist columns — once again highlights the close-minded, vicious, and hateful culture that now permeates today’s intellectual class. They do not think, they do not research, they do not care, and above all, they hate with an empty-minded fervor that at times can be truly horrifying.

If something does not change soon in this culture, the future they will bring us will only see even greater evils, including outright genocide. For when you refuse to consider the possibility that you are wrong, as Prescod-Weinstein and her allies are doing, the only solution in the end is the final solution, to kill your opponents so you need not face the truth.

Press freedom continues to decline worldwide

 By William Haupt III | The Center Square contributor

The CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia, is the world headquarters of CNN. - Shutterstock photo

The important thing is there are plenty of newspapers, with plenty of different people controlling them, so there are a variety of viewpoints, so there is a choice for the public." – Rupert Murdoch

Soldiers of the Press was a radio series that ran from 1942 to 1945 to showcase the contributions that United Press reporters made during the World War II. These shows featured war correspondents in every venue of action throughout the war. These real life dramas were encapsulations of their eye witness accounts from behind the enemy lines in Japan, New Guinea, China, Germany and Italy.

Each of these war correspondents deserves a place in history for their dedication, bravery and their willingness to "tell it like it was on the front line." These tough reporters are portrayed as the people they were. War correspondents knew the risks of their assignment, and over 60 journalists died in the line of duty alongside the fighting men and women whose stories they were reporting upon.

Ernie Pyle was the most famous American journalist covering World War II. He reported from the front line dodging bullets to get true-to-life stories. On April 18, 1945, Pyle was killed on Ie Shima by a sniper. He was buried in the National Punchbowl Cemetery in Hawaii with his fellow war heroes.

When the International Federation of Journalists published its first annual report of journalists killed in 1990, very few anticipated that the journalists killed list would still be going and growing 30 years later. These numbers are reminiscent of what Ernie Pyle said, “You are never safe in a war zone.”

"Freelance journalists are the most vulnerable since they work alone without help." – Åsne Seierstad

According to The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 67 journalists were killed in 2022. That is a 30% increase over last year. Russia’s war in Ukraine, chaos in Haiti, violent crime in Mexico and response to civil protests has contributed to a sharp spike in fatalities of journalists killed this year.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) tallied 385 journalists currently imprisoned for their work, with the highest figures in China, Hong Kong, Myanmar, Turkey and Iran. That's an increase of 30 journalists over last year. Many will remain there for years for simply trying to report the news.

With the number of media worker killings on the rise, the IFJ called on governments to do more to protect journalists. Failure to act emboldens those who suppress information and undermines the people's ability to hold leaders accountable.

"Without better protection for journalists, it limits the ability of people from keeping their leaders from abusing their political power." – Anthony Bellanger

Knut Dörmann, from the IFJ Legal Division, said current Geneva Convention regulations regarding the rights of journalists in conflict zones, are not being enforced. He said attacks against reporters in conflict situations are international war crimes but governments are ignoring international law.

"No matter how many rules you agree upon, they aren’t enforced during a war." – Suzy Kassem

CPJ compiled a list of the countries that are most unsafe for journalists. They are Eritrea, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Azerbaijan, Vietnam, Iran, China and Myanmar. Seven of these countries are also the worst jailers led by China and Myanmar with 105 journalists in jail according to CPJ’s annual census. Most journalists imprisoned globally are charged with anti-state crimes. The safety of journalists is an essential condition for the realization of the universal, inalienable right to freedom of expression, as stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But human rights and democracy are only guaranteed if journalists can work freely and without fear of political persecution, violence, intimidation, government surveillance and the threat of censorship.

Democracy is under threat around the world. They are confronting challenges within and outside of their borders. Public distrust and the failure of governments to work for the people ignites political polarization, which allows leaders to undermine the duties of the press. Politicians and media use selective censorship to empower one party over another, which destroys the tenants of democracy.

In America, animosity toward journalists continues to grow as more instances of censorship have been revealed about liberal media "killing stories" for Democrats during elections. This tarnishes the opinions people have with media and it severely reduces our credibility with other nations also.

The world has always turned to America to help protect their freedom and democracy. American journalists set the bar for the reporting of factual events during WWII. But a lot has changed since then. The ranking of the media on The World Press Freedom Index shows a big decline in freedom of speech in many democracies worldwide. This includes the U.S., which slipped down to number 45.

European nations dominate the WPF rankings with the most press freedom. Norway ranked No. 1 and Sweden finished No. 2. The Netherlands, Finland and Switzerland rounded out the top five. Canada rose four positions to No. 18 and was classified as having a "good" press freedom climate.

Unlike China, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Iran, Myanmar and other nations where media reporters are censored by the government and journalists literally fear for their lives, journalists in the U.S. have unlimited freedom of the press, without the fear of reprisal. But you'd never know it.

Everyone already knew that social media, TV and the fishwrap censored conservatives during the last election. Public schools and universities are adamantly censoring free speech to support the pro progressive platform throughout America. This is fostering the aggrandizement of socialism also.

FDR told us, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." Many reporters across the traditional news media are struggling against institutional tics and timidities that make "balance" a false idol. Most journalists are liberal on social issues, like abortion and gun control and even evolution. And most work for corporations run by young liberal university grads who were taught that Republicans are weird, scary and a threat to them. Therefore, reporters are as liberal as the men who own them."

At one time when journalism was a passion not a profession, the U.S. was admired and looked up to as a nation to emulate for their courageous efforts to speak up and support admirable principles with actions to protect global free speech and democracy. But today, America has lowered the bar for protecting free speech to facilitate progressive idealism, which is affecting free speech globally.

Today, most U.S. journalists will never appreciate freedom of the press until they lose it. If you ask most any reporter who Ernie Pyle was, and what he did for freedom and democracy, most will say he was a goofy guy on the Andy Griffith Show who owned a gas station and also joined the army.

"I won't say that newspapers misquote me, but I sometimes wonder where Christianity would be today if some of those reporters had been Matthew, Mark, Luke and John." – Barry Goldwater

A Happy New Year To Our NBRA Supporters!

 

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Reflections on the 'Black Conservative Box'

 By Jeff Charles | RedState.com

(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

As someone who has been in the black conservative space for years, I’ve experienced the same arrows and invective as most others in my position. Along with the usual slurs like “Uncle Tom” and “coon,” I’ve also been hit with one of the most braindead tropes that are popular on the progressive left: The idea that I’m only trying to earn “white approval” by spewing “white supremacist talking” points.

These insults are not typically used by rational, intelligent folks on the left (yes they do exist) who are capable of having a conversation or debate. Instead, they are favored by people of low IQ. Yes, that sounds like a nasty personal attack, but it is true.

Yet, this is the first time I have sat down to write a piece about it. The reason why is that I honestly don’t care about the opinions of irrational and unintelligent people, nor do I value the opinions of imbeciles. I think now it might be a good idea to address this issue after reading a piece by my good friend and author Adam B. Coleman.

Coleman wrote a piece for his Substack titled “Speaking Wrong At The Right Time,” which I highly recommend because he is almost as brilliant a writer as yours truly. The article, titled “I Hate Being In the ‘Black Conservative’ Box,” detailed some of the issues faced by melanated humans whose politics happen to be right-of-center.

“Being black & even moderately conservative places you in a box filled with false narratives about your motivations & constantly fighting against positions you never personally made,” he writes. “It’s an uphill battle for your own voice because all people hear are the voices of other prominent black conservatives or the voice in their head based on the avatar they’ve mentally constructed.”

Coleman also notes that the term “black conservative” is, in reality, “a box constructed for uniform thought as it’s assumed we all think the same way and have the same perspectives on everything.”

“Some enjoy living in this box but I don’t,” he explains.

This is a sentiment with which I empathize, having been in the same box myself for years. But it was what Coleman wrote next that got me thinking. He recalled a critic who said: “If he told the truth he would lose his white audience.”

“This statement implies that I have no integrity and that I spend hours upon hours writing things I don’t even believe,” Coleman explains.

The first thing I thought when I read the piece was that this argument used by progressives – black and white – is one of the most brazen displays of projection that I have come across in the political space. It reminds me of the oft-quoted maxim: “Always accuse your enemy of that which you are doing.”

The implication is that black conservatives, by and large, are merely tap dancing for a white audience, telling them what they want to hear to garner clicks, clout, and white accolades.

If I’m being honest, there are some black folks on the right who engage in this behavior. But if they were being honest – which they are not – they would acknowledge that this also exists among progressive circles. In fact, it is actually more prevalent on the left simply because there are more black folks among Democrats than among Republicans.

Every night on activist media outlets like MSNBC, CNN, and others, black faces get in front of the camera and start spouting the usual “everything is racist” claptrap that appeals to their white progressive audience and white progressive bosses. Indeed, white progressives pay these individuals big bucks to go on television and call white people racist – and these black faces are happy to oblige.

What do you think would happen if these people stopped peddling the progressive fairy tale about racist white police officers slaughtering unarmed black Americans every day? Why, they would lose their white audience, of course! In left-wing media, black people are not allowed to give nuanced takes on racial matters, nor are they able to hold members of their own party accountable for its own racism. I know this because I’ve had behind-the-scenes conversations with some of these folks.

The truth of the matter is that tap dancers exist in every area of politics – and it is not exclusive to skin color. Influencers on the right and left fall into the trap of throwing red meat to their audience without also offering substance and nuance.

These individuals are motivated more by popularity and cash than effecting positive change. The harsh reality is that it is more lucrative for people to tell their audiences only what they want to hear than it is to be truthful, even if that means criticizing members of your political team.

What is truly unfortunate about Coleman’s article is that he is right: This is unfair and unproductive. Having been his friend, I know he is 100 percent sincere about what he says and is not the caricature some have tried to paint him as. But in this era in American politics, that does not matter to some folks. It is also important to acknowledge that there are still people who value divergent thinking, nuance, and a desire to address societal ills.

These are my people.

I decided long ago that those who engage in these tactics are not worth addressing or thinking about. Instead, I prefer to deal with folks who are serious about change.

Michelle O’s Moment of Unscripted Honesty – Oops!

By Will Alexander | Townhall.com

Photo By Haraz N. Ghanbari

My oldest daughter, who is as apolitical as they come, texted me a video link to comments she liked by Michelle Obama during a REVOLT interview just before Christmas where she talked about her dad.  After the link, she texted: “Thought about you.  Thanks dd.  Love you!”

I deeply cherish my daughter’s sentiment, but I’m not a Michelle Obama fan. My gut reaction was to protect what little brain matter I have left by not listening to Michelle’s deadening “I’m a little girl from the South Side of Chicago” script that she’s now rehearsed to a muscle memory. 

Thanks largely to her dad, who died from multiple sclerosis in his 50s, Michelle lived in solidly middle-class neighborhoods fairly early in her life where she attended a magnate school, practiced piano and dance, eventually went to Princeton, and graduated with a law degree from Harvard University.  

Good for her.  

But unfortunately, those are not the credentials that get you the applause from an authoritarian black political culture that demands “black protest to be built in each black person’s sense of self,” as Shelby Steele once put it.    

So to fall in line with the black protest culture – to be “authentically black” – Michelle must always be inauthentic in public to the life she’s actually lived.  

Barack learned that the hard way.  During a 2007 Father’s Day speech while campaigning at a black church, Senator Obama committed the cardinal sin of telling the truth, in public.  

“We need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception,” said Obama, who’s own father was never in his life. Too many fathers are “missing from too many lives in too many homes.”

Jesse Jackson, whose biological father was never in his life, was infuriated.  

“I wanna cut his nuts out,” the reverend whispered in a hot mic to Fox’s Farai Chideya after the speech.  “Barack’s been talking down to black people,” he complained.

To this day, with no office to run for, Barack’s been obedient ever since.  When it comes to ideas that could transform the outcomes of lagging blacks, no more truth-telling.

No matter how many thousands of blacks are murdered by other blacks, how many trillions are wasted on perpetuating a culture of poverty, or how much has gotten worse despite the fact that blacks are in so many commercials  – the problem, they say, is miscellaneous “white folks” oppressing blacks in a systemically racist society.  

“Many of us [blacks] still live in fear as we go to the grocery store …” Michelle told Gayle King last year.  “Like so many parents of black kids … the innocent act of getting a [driver’s] license puts fear in our hearts … I mean, all those Black Lives Matter kids, they’d rather not have to worry about this.” 

This is a lie.

For the Obamas, simple common sense has become excruciatingly difficult and costly in an era that so richly rewards outright lies. They’ve become, as Steele described, “bound” – abject slaves to a tyrannical brand of racial politics that thrives on ridiculous grievances, such as the subtle bigotry of milk and math.

That’s been my beef with these two.  No two people in all of American history had more power to bookend the extraordinary story of blacks moving from abject slavery to occupying what was once Earth’s most powerful office … twice.  And no two people have botched it more. 

But cringingly, I clicked on Michelle’s video – for no other reason than to get the message my daughter wanted me to hear.  

I’m glad I did.  

The moment that brought Michelle to tears, for once, seemed very authentic.  Despite his flaws, she sketched the picture of a man with colorblind attributes that are the exact opposite of the ones she so loudly advocates for in public.

“When I think about what my dad, as a black man with M.S., could’ve done; he could have never worked a day in his life,” she told the panel, “he could have collected benefits; he could have succumbed to his disease and be depressed about it, but he didn’t.”

And this is where she got choked up.   

“He never felt sorry for himself, he never expected others to do for him, and just the sheer act of him getting up every day and going to work was a statement that – ugh, now I’m going to cry – that stays with me every day of my life.”

Nothing that Michelle Obama is best known for (lawyer, First Lady, best-selling author, rich, immensely influential), she said, compares to the intangible lessons she learned from her dad.

“… he is not here to see any of it, and so much because of him.  … What my dad did was beyond money, title, influence, nothing.  I would trade it all for what my father provided us in that little bitty apartment on 74th and Euclid.”

Why hasn’t this been Michelle’s public message to black audiences in lagging communities – especially to young black men? Using her own words, these are the lessons she deemed to be more valuable than “money, title, influence”: 

>Never stop working to provide for your family.

Never depend on welfare benefits.

Never allow circumstances beyond your control to get you so depressed that you give up.

Never feel sorry for yourself.

Never expect others to do for you what you alone must do for yourself.

Never let people, groups, circumstances, misfortune, friends or enemies keep you from getting up and going for your dreams and goals every, single day of your life.

Never forget that these intangible attitudes are so valuable that they should never be traded for money, fame, titles, or influence. 

Never forget that it is never so much what you say that sticks with your children, but how you live your life.

Through endless government programs, endless racial grievances, and endless “compassion” for an endless line of imaginary victims, the Obamas have spent their political lives advocating for ideals that are antithetical to the ones her own dad practiced.

Those ideals are what resonated with my daughter.  It wasn’t a rehearsed political speech pushing government programs that moved her to share Michelle Obama’s video.  It was a rare moment of unscripted honesty conveyed so authentically that it spoke to the way she sees her own dad. 

It was the truth. 

“Thought about you.  Thanks dd.  Love you!” 

I get it.

____________________________

Will Alexander

Will Alexander, a retired U.S Marine who now works in real estate, is a former print journalist.

Pure Evil

By Judd Garrett 

This is an article that shouldn’t need to be written, but sadly, in our country today, it does. Remember, the good old days, when everybody – right, left, middle, Republican, Democrat, Independent, liberal, conservative, you name it – could all agree on this one thing – pedophilia was wrong; it was not only wrong, it was evil. Pedophiles were the lowest form of life. Pedophiles were so bad, so evil that in prison, the most violent, hardened criminals, viewed their actions towards children as so reprehensible that they would take it upon themselves to kill the pedophiles.

So, we all used to believe that harming a child was probably the worst thing anyone could do. But not anymore. Today, we have college professors who are arguing to change the term “pedophile” to “minor attracted person” in order to remove the stigma of the pedophile’s desire to rape little children. There is a reason why the term “pedophile” has been stigmatized. Pedophilia is an evil act. But the left is slowly trying to normalize pedophilia in our society, as they have done with every other form of taboo sexual behavior.

One could argue, that changing the term is merely semantics, and not something tangible. Fair enough. But words are not the only things being changed. In California, officials have passed legislation reducing the sentences for pedophilia. Recently, California has released thousands of pedophiles from prison after serving less than one year of their multi-year sentences. Who would ever think it’s a good idea to allow pedophiles out of prison early? What public good is served by doing that, considering that people who commit these types of crimes will most likely commit them again? Do the people in charge simply not care about children or do they actually want more children to be raped?

The acceptance of sexualizing and exploitation of children is not exclusive to our legal system, it is infiltrating all of our culture. Disney has stated publicly that it is pushing to create a paradigm shift in the content that they are directing at children and teens by making LGBTQ storylines more commonplace and organic across their platform. Last month, Bob Iger, the new CEO of Disney, said he is committed to increasing LGBT “storytelling” in Disney’s animated kids’ movies.

American Girl Doll has recently come out with a new book entitled, “A Smart Girl’s Guide: Body Image: How to love yourself, live life to the fullest, and celebrate all kinds of bodies” aimed at girls 8-11 years old, telling them how prepubescent girls can change their gender to male. The book states, “Your gender expression can be feminine, masculine, or somewhere in between – and it might change!... Parts of your body may make you feel uncomfortable, and you may want to change the way you look. … ‘That’s totally OK! If you haven’t gone through puberty yet, the doctor might offer medicine to delay your body’s changes.”

High end fashion brand Balenciaga was exposed last month for a photo shoot of a child posing in BDSM gear, with the pages from the Supreme Court ruling ‘United States v. Williams’ addressing the first amendment protections for child pornography, on a table in the shoot. Hollywood celebrities who are never shy about voicing their opinions on political and social issues have remained conspicuously silent on Balenciaga's child sexual exploitation scandal. After this scandal came to light, Balenciaga was then forced to end another ad campaign that included a book about a Belgian painter Michaël Borremans, whose work features castrated toddlers.

Our schools are actively sexualizing our children as well. Joseph Bruno, the Dean of Students at an elite school in Chicago, Francis W. Parker, said that they allow an LGBTQ+ group to bring sex toys into their classrooms. He bragged, “we do a Pride Week every year -- I had our LGBTQ+ Health Center come in [to the classroom]. They were passing around butt-plugs and dildos to my students -- talking about queer sex, using lube versus using spit.” He added, “We had a Drag Queen come in -- pass out cookies and brownies and do photos.”

Public schools and libraries in Philadelphia, New York and Maryland have also been hosting Drag Queen Story Hours where adult males wearing outrageous women's clothing, heavy make-up, and big haired wigs, dance and talk about sexual themes to our young children.

It is also not uncommon for many of our public schools to provide morning-after pills and other birth control drugs to students without their parents’ consent. Public schools are also promoting transgender ideology in their classrooms while also “socially transitioning” confused children, without the knowledge of their parents. A good rule of thumb is – If you have to lie about and hide what you are doing, there is a really good chance what you are doing is wrong.

But they know exactly what they are doing. If children were not impressionable, if their perspectives and identities could not be molded, these people would not be engaged in this indoctrination. If all of this attempted programming just ran over these children like nothing, and all the kids came through completely unscathed, these people would not waste their time. But they know that they are changing some of these kids; they know that they are grabbing the most impressionable, the least confident, the kids still trying to discover their identity, and leading down the LGBTQ rabbit hole.

What is this perverse desire among many powerful people in our country to sexualize children? Why can’t children just be allowed to be children these days? And why are so many people in corporate media willing to allow all this to happen without objection?

How many men are sitting in prison right now for what they did on Jeffrey Epstein’s “Pedophilia Island” where young girls were flown in to be raped by rich and powerful men? Ghislaine Maxwell is in prison, rightfully so, but why aren’t any of the man who raped these underage girls in prison? Not one of the men who participated in the child rape has been brought to justice, and the media has shown little curiosity to find out who were the men systematically raping these young girls.

Epstein's former pilot Lawrence Paul Visoski Jr. testified in trial that powerful and famous men like, Kevin Spacey, Chris Tucker, Prince Andrew, Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, and others, took trips to Epstein’s Island. Why is not one of those men sitting in jail? Why have none been brought to trial? Why haven’t they been questioned? Why is there no Woodward and Bernstein from corporate media chasing down this story to find out who committed these rapes? Maxwell is in jail for recruiting and grooming these young women, but Epstein was not the only man these girls were groomed for. Where are all the women’s rights groups standing up for the young rape victims? Where are all the women who showed up at the Supreme Court protesting the confirmation hearings of Justice Brett Kavanaugh demanding justice for women? Where are the ever so brave #metoo women? I guess sexual harassment in the workplace of a grown woman is wrong, but raping young girls is okay.

20 years ago, the same corporate media that is willfully turning a blind eye to the mass sexual exploitation of our children across all of our institutions, engaged in a media frenzy over the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal under the pretense of protecting children. Looking at their silence today, it is fair to ask did the media use the sex scandal only as a way to attack the Catholic Church and Christianity, and not necessarily to protect children from abuse? In modern-day America, the left and the media have no interest in protecting children from predators; they are only interested in exploiting the abuse to achieve their ends.

That is how all of this works. It is a long game of destroying our institutions. First, they come after one of their despised institutions like the church and religion on grounds of sexual abuse of children, and once they’ve discredited the church sufficiently enough, they turn around and enable the sexual exploitation of children as a way to attack another one of their despised institutions, the family. We are used to the hypocrisy of the left but when their hypocrisy extends to something as evil as pedophilia, their hypocrisy crosses over into pure evil.