Mexican Trans Woman Being Denied Opportunity To Play Soccer

Soccer (or football to the rest of the world) is the world's most popular sport and is called 'the beautiful game' by its fans. 

But what is happening to 44 year old Mexican transwoman Miranda Itzayana is anything but beautiful.

Prior to transition, she played for the first division Mexican League team Pumas and others from 1985-1992.   She wanted to play the sport again and in June 2012 after showing documentation verifying her feminine identity, Itzayana joined the Mexican Women's League team Jaguars Aldana.  

Initially she was told there was no problem with her playing in the league, but pressure mounted as opposing teams wanted her thrown out of the league for 'playing like a man'.  Itzayana was also subjected to homophobic and transphobic slurs while playing matches.  

In February during a Mexican Women's League meeting the league and her team bowed to pressure and baseless accusations from opposing teams by not allowing Itzayana to play.  The league after that meeting subsequently enacted a 'women born women' policy to keep her out in violation of the IOC Stockholm Accords that FIFA and national soccer federations follow that allow trans athletes to compete.  

Jaguars Aldana, fearing being barred from the Mexican Women's League, threatened to expel Itzayana from the team if she complained publicly about her unjust treatment.    Upset about the discriminatory treatment she was receiving, she decided to take her case to the Council for the Prevention and Elimination of Discrimination in Mexico City (COPRED).

The COPRED commissioner ruled in her favor and ordered that Itzayana be reinstated, allowed to play in the next tounament and the discriminatory league rule be changed to allow her participation. 

FIFA has had an ongoing 'Say No To Racism' campaign in which we see the banner held up by players of both teams during every World Cup Men's and Women's tournament and other major confederation tournaments in international soccer.  We'll see it again later this summer in Brazil. 

But as I wrote back in 2011 and Jazz, Aeris Houlihan and Miranda Itzayana can tell you from painful experience, FIFA needs to immediately embark upon a campaign to eradicate transphobia and homophobia
from the sport, too.

Trans Namibians Facing Documentation Problems

I keep pointing out that trans human rights issues are worldwide issues, and it is very interesting to note that no matter what country we reside in, some of our problems are the same.

One of those trans problems that crosses international borders is documentation.

It shouldn't be, but as my now 8 months and counting drama just to get a Texas drivers license is an example of and Valentina Verbal of Chile being forced to drop out of a race for a seat in her national legislature because of it, we go through a lot of drama as transpeople because of mismatched identification. 

That being said, let's move to Namibia, where some of our transpeeps living in that nation like 24 year old Mercedez von Cloete are receiving resistance when it comes to acquiring documentation that accurately reflects who they are now.

Article 13 of the UN Charter of Rights and Freedoms states:

• (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
• (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

According to an article in The Namibian, despite being able to transition and have SRS be legal in that nation, Namibian trans people like Cloete are being shown the door when they attempt to get the documentation that they need to travel in and out of the country.

Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration head Jacobius van de Westhuizen says this shouldn't be happening and no Namibian should be denied the right to identification documents.

But the reality for Mercedez and other Namibian transpeople is quite different.  Cloete applied for a new passport photo in June 2012.  The application was not only turned down, but she didn't find out about the denial despite checking multiple times until a year later.

In the meantime, that puts Cloete in the situation every time she travels to South Africa of being subjected to lengthy questioning and delays by both Namibian and South African customs officials because her old passport photo looks nothing like the woman she is now.

We shouldn't have to go through lengthy bureaucratic delays and unnecessary drama just to get documentation that matches the people we are now.  

 
   

It's Tona's Birthday Today

And I wasn't letting this day pass without at least giving her a TransGriot blog shoutout.

Tona Brown continues to be an inspiration to not only her generation of trans people, but mine as well.  Her talents as a classically trained professional musician and vocalist have given her a career spanning North America and Europe.   In 2011 this Virginia native became the first trans person to sing for a sitting US president.  I hope one day she realizes one of her big dreams of singing in a major concert hall. 

She's the founder of the AIDA String Ensemble, is a motivational speaker and host of the YouTube show 'Conversations With Tona Brown', of which from time to time I post her videos here. 

And the cool thing Tona is you made it through another busy year!

Happy birthday Sis!   May your birthday be filled with abundant blessings, smiles as wide as Texas and 2014 see every dream you've ever had realized.  
 

The 2013 NFL Prognostication Contest Winner Is..

Arrgh.  Like my fave NFL team, too little and way too late to defend my prognostication title.  That title is going to Arizona unless Eli has a horribly bad week 17 and Mike conversely has a monster good one.
--TransGriot, December 27, 2013

After 256 regular season NFL games, our season long prognostication battle between defending 2012 champion moi, rookie Eli Blake, and 2011 co-champ Mike Watts has been decided.

Our champion for the 2013.NFL season is Eli, but not before Mike had that monster week I talked about..

While I closed with a 23-9 late season sprint and had an excellent Week 17, had too much of a hole to climb out of.   Mike also went 23-9 in the last two weeks and won this week with a stellar 14-2 record while Eli was 21-11 to give Mike a shot at overtaking him.

If Mike had gotten the Miami-NY Jets and Minnesota-Detroit games right, he would have had a perfect week and taken the title.  Congrats to Eli, our 2013 NFL prognostication champ and Mike for another fantastic finishing kick that came up just short. 

I know I want to do this again next season, and if any of you other bloggers want in on this prognostication battle, let me know before August 2014

Week 17 Results
TransGriot        12-4
Eli Blake           13-3
Mike Watts       14-2

Final 2013 Season Record
TransGriot      144-111-1
Eli                  163-92-1
Mike              160-95-1

FREE CeCe! Documentary Being Filmed

One of my fave peeps in the trans community is busy producing a documentary about our unjustly incarcerated sister entitled FREE CeCe!

The upcoming documentary is being co-produced by Laverne Cox and Jacqueline 'Jac' Gares.  

In addition to an interview with McDonald by Cox, it tells the story of the events of that June 2011 night, the role that race, class and gender played in this case, the issues of housing trans feminine people in male prisons and anti-trans violence.

Gares and Cox also talked about the documentary project in a recent Persephonemagazine.com interview.

The documentary's original genesis came from research Gares was doing when she was a Series Producer on the now cancelled show In The Life.   Gares and Cox both thought the story needed to be told, and looked into doing this as an independent documentary. 

Looking forward to seeing this when it is completed.
 
.

Ani DiFranco's Full Of Fail Feminist Plantation Retreat

Another prime example of why I'm NOT a feminist is breaking out as I write this on the Net 

Ani DiFranco is planning what she calls The Righteous Retreat in The Big Easy.  It's 4 days of music, seminars and feminist conscious raising from June 25-29 in Louisiana.

Sounds like an interesting event. huh?   Just one problem.  It's not being held in the New Orleans city limits, it's being held on a plantation.  When Black women called that problematic point out, all hell broke loose.

When Black women expressed their concerns about having this event on ground where our foremothers were raped, tortured, had the children they bore sold from them, the response was predictable from vanillacentric privileged white women rushing to defend DiFranco and this jacked up event. 

Mandi Harrington took it a reprehensible step further and engaged in virtual blackface to defend the indefensible.

Now they have trotted Toshi Reagon out to make a statement in a predictable attempt to hide behind her skirts as a human shield, but it still doesn't change the fact you are having this event at a plantation and we're pissed off about it.  It's the equivalent of having an event at Auschwitz.  

I'll bet if Jewish women told you that hypothetical Auschwitz event was triggering,  you'd be changing that venue with the quickness.   And these repeated race fails and being disappointed by white feminists is why I am a womanist. 

What next Ani?  A cruise that simulates the Middle Passage?  Your silence Ani will not protect you from the seething anger that is building up over this BS.   Neither will your weak attempt to use Toshi Reagon as a human shield for your fauxgressive frack-up.

White women's tears start in 5...4...3...2...1...

Yeah, #BlackTwitter, it's time to do what we do best    #AniDiFrancoRetreatIdeas



TransGriot Update: DiFranco put out a non-apology statement written in lowercase cancelling the plantation retreat, and the Twitter hashtag is slowly gaining momentum.

Last Sunday of 2013

Today is the last Sunday of 2013.   We are still as individuals and a community contemplating our lives, the year that is about to become part of our history books and how the rapidly approaching 2014 will shake out for us.

I've been in that contemplation mode since just before Christmas, which caused one of my friends to send a worried note to my mom expressing concerns that I was in the throes of holiday depression.   While I'll admit I wasn't in a chipper mood before Christmas Day arrived, it actually turned out okay.  It wasn't the best Christmas I'd ever had, but neither was it a disastrous one either. 
 
As we all tend to do as New Year's Day approaches,.we look back at our successes, analyze our failures and resolve to use the fresh start that the flip of the calendar page gives us to resolve to do better.

I'm also borrowing a paragraph that Pastor Lawrence T. Richardson wrote.a few months ago and having you commit that to memory for the 2K14.

My message to every trans and gender non-conforming person is this: "God is love and you were made in the image of perfect Love.  There is space for you in this world.  There is space at your church, in your desired career, in your family, on sports teams...and it is time to take your space.  Show up!  In large number or in small...your presence is valued and necessary.  So what, they stare or ask questions, answer them.   Look them in the eyes proudly with your beautiful, handsome, artsy, brilliant, capable, transgendered self.  Claim your space. Rearrange the seating to make room at the table.  Correct people when they use the wrong pronouns.  Hang up your own sign on the bathroom door.  Tell them who you are and who you are not. Be bold.  No one is going to understand what they cannot see, cannot hear or cannot know.   

He's right.  The first part of us Owning Our Power, which is the mantra of NBJC's dynamic CEO/ED Sharon Lettman-Hicks, is showing up.  

And we definitely much continue on the path of boldly claim our space and our seats at whatever tables we choose to sit at. 

White Perp Knocks Out The Racist 'Knockout Game' Narrative

Amazing how the appearance of one white male shuts down this whole racialized 'knockout game' media 'scurrfest' and 'urban predator' meme.  

Here in the Houston 'burbs, 27 year old Katy resident Conrad Barrett attacked a 79 year old African-American man while he was out for a November 24 walk in his Katy neighborhood.  

The vicious assault resulted in the man's jaw being fractured in two places and left him hospitalized for four days. 

Meanwhile the waste of DNA went to a bar in Fulshear, TX the same day and showed video of it to a person who was alleged to have been an off-duty police officer.  Barrett was arrested December 26, and a search of his phone not only revealed 10 more attacks,  but one of him making the alleged comment, "The plan is to see if I were to hit a black person, would this be nationally televised?"

Duh, when you viciously attack an African-American senior citizen, you damned skippy it's going national and probably international.  It's also guaranteed to go national when you make racist comments and derogatory statements toward my people.




One of the gems of racist idiocy from this fool is one video in which he says that African-Americans "haven't fully experienced the blessing of evolution."   

Dude, the first human on this planet looked like me and originated in Africa.  Looks like the only person who hasn't 'fully experienced the blessing of evolution' is your wannabee white hood wearing behind. 

Barrett is being charged with one count of violating the federal Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr Hate Crimes Act.  The criminal complaint was filed under seal December 24, 2013, and unsealed upon his December 26 arrest.   He has made his initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Frances Stacy and if he is convicted, he is facing a maximum of 10 years in jail and a $250,000 fine.
           

T-30 Days And Counting To Creating Change 2014

After the months of meetings, planning fundraisers, getting the word out, and other activities wrapped around it, we are now 30 tantalizing days away from Creating Change 2014 happening in my hometown January 29-Febuary 2.. 

Am I excited about it?    Is Annise Parker still my awesome mayor?

Yeah, me and our Creating Change team can't wait to roll out the rainbow carpet for you peeps who are traveling to H-town for this event. 

Looking forward to seeing the Hilton Americas Hotel swarming with our TBLG community members from around the country and the world as we plot, plan, learn from each other and strategize the next stages of our human rights movement. 

I'm looking forward to seeing and chatting with as many peeps during this conference as humanly possible while doing my part to make sure that things run smoothly in the Racial Diversity Suite.

But still have 30 days of work and nervous anticipation along with the rest of the Houston host committee before that happens.

CeCe McDonald May Be Released Soon!

Looks like the early part of 2014 could possibly be a wonderful start to the year for our unjustly incarcerated sister CeCe McDonald.

According to information posted on the Minnesota Department of Corrections website,  CeCe McDonald has a projected release date of January 13, 2014 with another 13 months of supervised release.

That's good news in a case that dates back to a June 5, 2011 night in which she and her friends found themselves under assault after having racist and transphobic slurs uttered at them as the passed the Schooner Tavern on their way to a South Minneapolis store.  A fight instigated by Molly Shannon Flaherty resulted in the death of Dean Schmitz

McDonald ended up taking a plea deal when there was clear evidence of self defense, while Molly Flaherty, the person who instigated this drama, only served 180 days.

Hope it does happen on that date for our incarcerated sister, because she shouldn't have spent one second inside the walls of that prison. 

CeCe was recently interviewed by Laverne Cox as part of an upcoming documentary currently being produced about the case entitled FREE CeCe!

Will definitely be keeping an eye on this developing story as we get closer to the projected release date.  I hope I have more wonderful news to report on January 13.

METRORail Test Train Phase Beginning On East End Line

METRO just opened the North Line extension to daily revenue service last weekend, and now comes word that the testing phase on the East End/Green Line from the EaDo/Stadium station serving BBVA Compass Stadium to the Altic/Howard Hughes station will begin in early January.

As was done on the North Line earlier this year, the initial phase will be with an unpowered rail car being pushed or towed along the tracks at no faster than five miles per hour and escorted by METRO police.

Just as was the case when the unpowered train testing was done on the North Line, the tests are to ensure there are no bends or bumps in the Green Line tracks.   The workers will be checking train clearance, ensuring signals are working properly and if that isn't the case, the train is stopped and the location of the problem logged so that it can expeditiously be corrected.

Once those unpowered tests are done, then it will move to electrical wiring tests and running powered test trains on the tracks to get METRORail train operators familiar with this new section of rail before it opens for service to the East End as they complete the 9 stations and the decorative touches around them.

At the moment the Green Line opens for revenue service, METRORail will truly become a light rail system and not just one 12.8 mile long line from the south side Fannin South Station to the Northline TC/HCC one via the Med Center and downtown.

And yeah, it goes without saying,  I can't wait for the Purple Line near me to open as well.

TransGriot Update: The start of the testing phase on the East End/Green Line got delayed until January 24

Serena Williams Is 2013 AP Female Athlete Of The Year

Read it and weep haters!  Serena Williams was named the 2013 AP Female Athlete of the Year for the third time.  She'd previously won that honor in 2002 and 2009.

It capped off a year in which she won the French and US Opens to push her Grand Slam title count to 17, won 11 tournament titles, earned $12 million in prize money and finished the season ranked number 1 on the world for the third time in her career.

She is only one Grand Slam title win away from matching Chris Evert and Martina Navratiloa who are tied with 18 majors.  

And yeah, just to remind y'all, the Australian Open starts January 13.

Christian Has Been Found!

Some good news to report on the missing transteen front concerning Christan Kukahiko, the 15 year old teen who was last seen November 9 at her home in Maunawili. 

According to a comment on the Crimestoppers Honolulu Facebook page dated December 3,  Christian was located and reunited with her family.

While we are happy for Christian's family that there was a happy ending in this case, there are far too many others in which successfully finding a missing person is the exception and not the rule, especially when the child is non-white or TBLG.

Just happy that Chris is home and this missing trans persons case had a successful resolution. 

Shut Up Fool Awards-Last Fool For 2013 Edition

This is the last week and last Friday for 2013, which means that this Shut Up Fool Award will be the last one I select for 2013

And I'm sad to say it has been a bumper crop year for folks exhibiting mind numbing stupidity, gleeful hypocrisy, and WTF moments that make your head spin.

And with me about to go into my fifth anniversary year of doing the TransGriot Shut Up Fool Awards, the fast approaching mid term election in November is guaranteed to produce more fools worthy of claiming our award.

And thanks to all you TransGriot readers who never fail to send me suggestions, nominations and links to SUF worthy candidates through the year. 

And to celebrate the fifth anniversary year of the Shut Up Fool Awards, because you asked for it, starting next month I will do a TransGriot Shut Up Fool of The Month

So let's move on to handling our weekly SUF business for the last time in 2013.

Honorable mention number one is a group award for all the GOP grinches who moved to cut extended unemployment beneifts for people on December 28.

Hope you peeps who had that happen to you remember that on November 4, 2014. 

Honorable mention number two is 2011 Shut Up Fool Lifetime Achievement Award honoree Sarah Palin who was also the 2010 Shut Up Fool of the Year.   She parted her lips to admit that she hadn't read the GQ article with A&E Duck Dynasty patriarch and fauxbilly Phil Robertson's controversial comments before becoming the head cheerleader for the Conservafool Noise Machine on this issue.

Why should we be surprised about that?    

Honorable mention number three goes to Utah Governor Gary Herbert (R-UT)  Homboy had this to say about marriage equality deliciously and unexpectedly breaking out in his state.  "I am very disappointed an activist federal judge is attempting to override the will of the people of Utah. I am working with my legal counsel and the acting Attorney General to determine the best course to defend traditional marriage within the borders of Utah."

Governor Herbert, guess you don't have any problem with 'activist judges' when they are conservafool ruling to roll back or suppress human rights, huh?

Good luck getting that stay past Justice Sonia Sotomayor..

Honorable mention number four is a joint one for Suge Knight and TMZ.    Knight parted his lips to ignorantly say he's offended when people call him African-American because he's not African, but has no problem with the word n**ga.  Fool, you may not have been born on the second largest continent on the planet, but your DNA damn sure screams it and connects you through the blood of our ancestos to that continent. 

Have several seats and a tall tropical punch flavored glass of STHU.    TMZ then followed up on Knight's jacked up comment with a racist poll asking the question, 'Refer to Black people as' African American or N***a?    Guess what's leading as of this writing?

Honorable mention number five goes to Conrad Barrett.   The 27 year old Lone Star fool bragged last month about knocking out a 79 year old African-American man to a stranger he met at a restaurant.   He asked the stranger and the woman he was with if they'd heard of the Knockout Game, then pulled out cell phone video of the incident and show it to them.   .  

He was stunned to find himself in handcuffs a few moments later   The stranger he showed it to was an off-duty cop who excused himself, found an on duty one who busted the idiot.   

Barrett is being charged with a hate crime because in further searching Barrett's phone, police found video of him using racial slurs as well as another in which he asks, "That plan is to see if I were to hit a black person, would this be nationally televised?"   

Honorable mention number six goes to soon to be former teacher Gil Voigt.   He's on his way to hopefully being terminated after telling a Black student who expressed his desire to be POTUS in his Fairfield, OH classroom that "we don't need another Black president.".

Well, we can guess which way Mr Voigt voted in the last presidential election based on that jacked up statement. 

We've had 43 white male presidents in this country and the last one was a disaster.  We not only need another Black president, but a female one, a Latino/a one, an Asian one, a trans one, an SGL one...

What we don't need is another incompetent white male POTUS or a bigoted white male teacher in the classroom.     

The last Shut Up Fool weekly award winner for 2013 is former PR executive Justine Sacco.   It's former PR executive because the global head of communications for the Barry Diller-led firm IAC — was on a 12-hour flight from London to Cape Town.

She tweeted before boarding BA Flight 43 this racist comment.

Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!— Justine Sacco (@JustineSacco) December 20, 2013

While 12 hours is a long time to be cooped up on an airplane, it's plenty of time to marshal the forces of the Internet to call your behind out about racist crap.  Before she landed in Cape Town and cleared customs, Black Twitter was on her azz with the #HasJustineLandedYet hashtag.   Another person registered the justinesacco.com domain name and redirected it to Aid For Africa, her boss chimed in and then this happened.     

She apologized, but the damage was done.  White Women's tears start flowing n 5...4...3...2...1...

That's okay, Daddy is a billionaire and will have a nice cushy job waiting for you at Fox Noise when you return to the States.

In the meantime, Justine Sacco, shut up (unemployed) fool 

Moni's Headed To The 2014 LGBT Media Journalists Convening!

One of the first trips I'll make in the New Year will be back to Washington DC, but it won't be to lobby. 

I'll be headed inside I-495 to attend the 2014 LGBT Media Journalists Convening that will be taking place in our nation's capital.

The National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association (NGLJA) is the proud host of the 2014 LGBT Media Journalists Convening, and it is sponsored by the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund.

The theme of the 2014 LGBT Media Journalists Convening is "Honing Our Game," and will be held Friday, February 28 to Sunday, March 2, 2014.  The goal of this fifth annual forum is to strengthen the capacity of TBLG  members of the media and blogosphere to more deeply understand and more effectively communicate critical issues facing the BTLG community, as well as assist in increasing the presence and diversity of GLBT bloggers in the national blogging community.

Translation, the convening is a business trip to help me become a better blogger and meet with many of my counterparts around the country to talk shop.   

Last year's event in Philly was the first time I was able to attend it.  I'm still bummed I missed the 2012 one in Houston, and from what I heard when I was in the City of Brotherly Love for it, so were many of my fellow bloggers.

So as the date gets closer to it and other attendees start talking about it,  I'll have more to say.  But one thing I'm already aware of is the hashtag we'll be using for the 2014 convening, which will be #LGBTMedia14.

I'm looking forward to 'Honing My Game' with my fellow bloggers and journalists and hanging out with y'all in late February.

1993 Oilers Getting More Interesting By The Day

Well well, looks like the In Living Color 'Men on Football' Super Bowl skit joke about the Oilers wasn't too far off base.

This team gets more interesting by the day.   First there was the allegation on HuffPo there was a transfeminine Derrick Doll shaking her pompoms on the Astrodome sidelines during the 1992 and 1993 seasons.

Then there was the recent NFL Network documentary about the 1993 Oilers team and all the drama surrounding it.  1-4 start, Warren Moon benching, Babygate, the nationally televised punch of Kevin Gilbride by Buddy Ryan, the 11 game win streak that led to them clinching the AFC Central title with a 12-4 record and earning home field advantage throughout the playoffs but falling victim to one last hurrah from Joe Montana and the Kansas City Chiefs 28-20 in their divisional round Dome playoff game.   

Now in the wake of the documentary comes this preview of a Houston Chronicle article scheduled to be published on Sunday (December 29) that stated there were two gay players on that 1993 team, the team knew about it, and didn't care. 

“Listen, those guys that we’re talking about were unbelievable teammates. And if you wanted to go to war with someone, you would get those guys first. Because I have never seen tougher guys than those guys,” said Oilers Pro Bowl linebacker Lamar Lathon. “And everybody in the locker room, the consensus knew or had an idea that things were not exactly right. But guess what? When they strapped the pads on and got on the field, man, we were going to war with these guys because they were unbelievable.”

It's interesting info in light of the fact that no active NFL player has come out, and only a handful of NFL players have come out in retirement.  It's also interesting to note that Brendon Ayanbadejo and Chris Kluwe, after expressing support for marriage equality and filing an amicus brief on February 28 in support of the Hollingsworth v Perry case then before the US Supreme Court, were let go by their respective NFL teams and were not signed by any NFL team during the 2013 season.  

But back to the 1993 Oilers and that gay players revelation.  That was the way it should have been.  Nobody giving a damn about those two gay Oilers except for how they did their jobs on the playing field.

As to who they are, I remember hearing a lot of rumors during that time about who those players were, but as long as my fave team was winning, I didn't care.  

Looking forward to reading that Chronicle article on Sunday.
 

Racist TMZ Poll Wants You To Decide Whether To Call Us African-Americans Or N**gas

I guess TMZ thought because of the holidays no one would be paying attention to that racist poll they have on their site, but they guessed wrong.

Suge Knight parted his lips in a December 16 article posted on the site to say he's 'offended' when people refer to him as an African-American because he's not African.  

Your DNA says otherwise, you idiot even though you weren't born on the African continent.

Sheesh, where is the D.R.O..P. Squad when you need them?  

And vanillacentric privileged elements of the white community don't consider you to be simply an American, either.   And they would love to call you the word you don't have a problem with.  

But TMZ for whatever stupid, clueless, racist, they though it was funny or all of the above reasons decided to create a poll which had this question. 

What should black people call themselves?  

The only possible answers in this reprehensible poll are African American or N**ga.    And you know that white folks are constantly bitching because we have told them NOT to call us the n-word and are gleefully flocking to this racist one.  

Over 82,547 votes have been cast at this writing, with N**ga currently ahead of African American at a 54%-46% clip as of this writing.    The script on that poll needs to be flipped ASAP while at the same time we cuss TMZ and their editors the hell out for even coming up with that racist poll in the first place.