Help Jaila's EP Become A Reality

You may remember me talking about Jaila Simms, who was on the reality TV show Making Diddy's Band back in 2009.

So what's Jaila been up to since then? 

Well, Jaila has put together a debut EP entitled 'Best of Both Worlds' with a tentative release date of April 8, but is $600 short so the post production of it can happen.   

)

She has a Gofundme campaign that is running through March 17 that is trying to raise that post production money for the EP, so let's help a #girllikeus out. 

Every dollar counts, and even if you can only spare a dollar, that's one dollar closer to her goal..  600 people x $1= $600. 300 people x $2 =  $600.  120 people x $5= 600   60 people x $10 = $600

Help Jaila's EP become a reality.
 

What Does 'Tell It Like It T-I-S Is' Mean?

For those of you who read my blog regularly. you'll note that I have the phrase 'tell it like it T-I-S is' incorporated in many of the over 7000 blog posts I've composed for this blog.
 
So what does it mean and where did it come from?

I didn't create it.  I give the credit for it to the 'Father of Black Radio', Jack 'The Rapper' Gibson.' 

I used to read his Mello Yello Black radio and music publication when my Dad was finished with it, and saw it there regularly.  I loved Gibson's no holds barred truth telling style when he wrote about issues inside and outside Black radio world. 

The T-I-S in that phrase I borrowed from him stands for 'truth is sacred'.  It hearkens back to a long history we have in the African-American community of fearlessly speaking truth to power.

As James Baldwin once wrote in Rap on Race in 1971, "I write to bear witness to the truth.'.  

And so do I.   That's one of my goals here at TransGriot.   Yes, I find it interesting that some people can't handle that truth, especially when I am in tell it like it T-I-S is mode.  I do so because to do anything less is spitting on the legacy of the legions of truth telling writers my people have proudly produced and I am an heir to that legacy.  

As a unapologetically Black trans person who has the writing skills to (sometimes) pay my bills, I am feeling the 1972 words of Gwendolyn Brooks when she said, 'True Black writers speak as Blacks about Blacks for Blacks'.

If you're not Black but get the messages that I convey in my writing, then that's all good too.

So now you know not only where that phrase comes from, but where my head is at when I write it.  

Composite Sketch Of Suspect In Houston SGL Couple Murder

As many of you here in the Houston area and beyond are aware of, two African-American SGL women were found dead near a Port Bolivar convenience store dumpster Friday.  

This is a composite sketch of the suspect in the murder of Houston couple Britney Cosby and Crystal Jackson, who were both 24 years old.  Galveston County Sheriff Henry Trochesset wouldn’t elaborate on how the man and the victims were connected, but is quoted in a KHOU-TV report as saying it’s likely the women were killed somewhere in Houston before their bodies were brought to the Port Bolivar location where they were found.

Galveston County detectives are asking for the public’s help in identifying the suspect in the composite drawing. He would have been last seen with the victims and in their vehicle, a 2006 silver Kia SUV.

Those with information are asked to contact the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office at 866-248-8477 or Galveston County Crime Stoppers 409-763-8477.

Conservatism An Intellectual Movement? Since When?

James Baldwin once said that "It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have."  

That junction of ignorance allied with power has been openly on display in the Republican Party and the conservative movement for the last two decades.

I'm still laughing my azz off at a comment Michele Bachmann made during her speech at the recently concluded CPAC conference in National Harbor, MD in which she stated that "at its core, the conservative movement was an intellectual movement based on the greatest ideas that have ever been conceived in the minds of man. 

"at its core is an intellectual movement" based "on the greatest ideas that have ever been conceived in the mind of man."​ - See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/bachmann-our-movement-its-core-intellectual-movement#sthash.Q5RWIIxO.dpuf core is an intellectual movement" based "on the greatest ideas that have ever been conceived in the mind of man."​ - See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/bachmann-our-movement-its-core-intellectual-movement#sthash.Q5RWIIxO.dpuf

Really?  Since when?  And what were you smoking before you stepped to the podium to make that speech?

At its core the conservative movement is the political arm of white supremacy.  It is all about keeping white men at the top of of the societal food chain dictating policy and returning clueless Stepford women like you to the house to birth and raise them babies.

It is also at its core an attack on Blackness, non-white Americans, the TBLG community,  women, the poor, education, human rights, voting rights, unions, worker's rights, science, the arts, and anyone with the ability to critically think.   

You don't promote family values, it's more like Ferengi Values.  Profits before people.  Hell, I'm surprised you haven't proposed replacing the United States Constitution with the Ferengi Rules Of Acquisition.

But seriously GOP, y'all need to better reflect the current state of your party and the conservative movement by changing your mascot from the elephant to a smiling Ferengi because y'all have so much in common. 

Intellectual movement?   The only intellectual activity going on is Conservaworld is coming up with creative ways to unjustly suppress the human rights of people you don't like, justifying greed and selfishness, and keeping your base ignorant about how you're screwing them and laughing about it in your quiet rooms.

John Kenneth Galbraith nailed it when he said this about modern conservatism.

The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.

And they not only are engaged in justifying selfishness, they are also trying to justify bigotry and hatred against anyone who isn't a wealthy white male. 

Conservatism an intellectual movement?   Please, many of their proud followers couldn't spell the word 'intellectual' even if you spotted them all the consonants.   You can bet many of them weren't watching Cosmos last night either.  .  

Only in their vanillacentric privilege addled minds it is.   . 

Congratulations Omar!

The Lone Star State as you know has some fantastic activists living in its 268,561 sq. miles of territory and in the 16 years I've been involved in the TBLG human rights fight I've gotten to meet and know a few of them.

One of the people I have the pleasure of talking to from time to time is Omar Narvaez.

Omar is based in the Dallas area, is the former president of the Stonewall Democrats of Texas and is the community educator for Lambda Legal’s south central regional office in Big D. 

Narvaez made a little history when he was sworn in February 26 as the first openly gay trustee of the Dallas County School Board.    The DCSB governs the 14 school districts in Dallas County and has three countywide positions and four district seats that align with the Dallas County Commissioners Court

The DCSB's primary job is providing services for the Dallas County ISD's in the areas of transportation and information technology, as well as continuing education for teachers.

“It’s not a well-known seat, but it’s one that affects the entire county as far as schools go and ISDs,” he said in a Dallas Voice interview, adding he’s excited to focus on a position that affects youth. “They are the most important entity for our future.”

Narvaez is serving out the remaining DCSB term of trustee Maricela Moore, who resigned from it in January.  That term expires in May 2015 and he has yet to decide if he is going to run for reelection on the DCSB.  

He is also quite aware of the fact that he is now one of the few openly gay officials in Dallas County.  It is a short but distinguished list that includes Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez, District Clerk Gary Fitzsimmons and 116th Judicial District Court Judge Tonya Parker.

“There’s not a lot of us, but at the same time we are putting ourselves out there, and our orientation does not deter us from running for office,” Narvaez said.

Congratulations Omar!   Knowing you, you'll have no problem focusing on being the best person on the DCSB.  The children in those 14 Dallas County ISD's couldn't have a better advocate for them.
   

It's New York Times Bestselling Author Janet Mock's Birthday!

Time for a TransGriot shoutout to my  little sis in Janet Mock, and as you can tell by the title a lot has changed since I gave my sis her last birthday shoutout

Since then she has released Redefining Realness, she's on a SRO book tour, and has done a lot of media interviews in support of it.   Some have gone well while one didn't.

But through it all Janet still manages to represent herself #Girlslikeus and #TWOC in all our fabulous complexity. 

Happy birthday sis!  May you continue to have much success with this book that is not only timely, but is jump starting family conversations about trans issues. 

May the abundant blessings continue to flow your way.   May you experience on your special day smiles as wide as Texas, lots of love and laughter, and may you have many more birthdays to enjoy and experience.
 

Annie Is Black, And The Pointed White Hoods Come Out

A remake of Annie is about to hit your local multiplexes that when it was in the discussion stages, Willow Smith was rumored to be in the running for the part but it went to Oscar Best Actress nominee Quvenzhané Wallis.

And now that the trailer has come out for this movie coming soon to your local multiplex starring her and Jamie Foxx, I was shocked but not surprised to read that elements of white America are losing their damned minds on Twitter about it.

So the same whiteness that has no problem with Jared Leto being cast as a trans woman or defending 70% of movie roles going to white males, arguing that 'casting should be color blind' and 'the best actors should get the part' now has a racist foaming at the mouth problem with Quvenzhané Wallis being cast as Annie?   

Sigh.  The War on Blackness continues.

The same White America that last week was tying itself in pretzel logic like knots trying to justify a white man playing a transwoman as moi and the trans community complained about it, had no problem with that same white male winning an Oscar for that problematic portrayal, smugly told the trans community to 'get over it' while hiding behind Calpernia Addams' skirts to do so, is now having a vanillacentric scented hissy fit because a Black girl is playing Annie.

Their pointed white hoods are showing along with their white sheets. 


I'd need another post to document all the times that white people have played Black or other ethnic characters in movies.

John Wayne as Genghis Khan ring a bell?    Liz Taylor as Cleopatra?  Natalie Wood as Maria Nunez in West Side Story?  Laurence Olivier donning blackface to play Othello?   

Another example was Ava Gardner being chosen over Lena Horne and using the makeup Max Factor developed for Lena to play the mixed race character Julie LaVerne in the 1951 movie Show Boat when hello, Lena Horne practically was living that character's life.   
 
It's not like this is the first time a classic film has been remade with an all-Black cast.   There was the musical The Wiz that was turned into a 1978 film starring Michael Jackson and Diana Ross. 

Most recently the movie Steel Magnolias was reimagined with an all Black cast featuring Phylicia Rashad and her daughter Condola Rashad, Queen Latifah, Alfre Woodard, and Jill Scott. 

IIt also speaks to another problematic issue that if the movie in question doesn't have Blacks interacting with Whites in servitude, deference, or emotional dependence, it results in whites leaving in droves after it starts.


I witnessed that phenomenon firsthand with the movie White Man's Burden. It starred John Travolta and Harry Belafonte in which the societal script was flipped and it was white peeps living in the hood and Black folks living in Beverly Hills.
I noticed whites leaving the theater and heard one brother say to one white guy exiting the theater, "What's wrong? Can't handle this movie? This is what we deal with everyday in America."
Another reality that needs to be dealt with is that in 21st century America, many of the orphans in those homes and the foster care system look like Quvenzhané.

As white people in this country, you can count on the fact that every week, a Hollywood movie will open that has casts who predominately look like you, and share your ethnic heritage and background.   I don't have that luxury as a person of color.  

An Annie that reflects my ethnic background is quite interesting to me, Black parents and the Black girls Quvenzhane's age who will see themselves reflected on the silver screen for once.

That should be celebrated, not racistly denounced..   

I've Applied For The Amtrak Writers Residency

One of my nicknames that longtime trans activists call me is the 'Air Marshal'.   I got that nickname to not only differentiate me from 'Sea Monica', aka Monica Helms, but because I was working in the airline industry at the time I transitioned 20 years ago next month and frequently flew to many trans community lobby days and events in the mid to late 90's-early 2K's. 

One of my international bucket list things I want to do is ride one of the bullet trains in either Japan, China or France 

Hopefully before I leave this planet I will see that type of high speed intercity rail service operating here in the United States.  The Acela is a distant cousin of the French TGV, but despite the design of the locomotive and the train high tech aspect that make for a comfortable ride even at high speed, it isn't traveling in the Northeast corridor at over 200 mph like the TGV and other international bullet trains do.

But to get that high speed rail service, we'll probably have to kick the anti-infrastructure spending Republicans out of national power for at least 40 years for it to happen.


The last time I took an intercity train trip predates the Amtrak years.   It was in 1966 when my dad was working for WBOK-AM and I was a four year old living on the West Bank in the New Orleans suburb of Marrero.

Mom took me and my brother to Houston on the train to visit my grandmothers for a few days before we headed back to NOLA.  A year later Dad got transferred back to Houston to start his morning drive time show at KYOK-AM and we moved back to H-town where I subsequently stayed until I bounced for Louisville in September 2001.for my nearly nine years stint living there. 

So yep, it's been that long since I've taken an intercity train trip.   A lot of that is fueled by the fact that I live here in Texas and not the Northeast Corridor, Eastern seaboard or the Left Coast where that mode of travel is a far more frequently used option.  In the Northeast there are daily service train travel options that are used, with one of the enthusiastic Amtrak passengers being Vice President Joe Biden.

Some of my colleagues who came to Washington DC for the recent LGBT Media Journalists Convening I just attended who live and work in the Northeast Corridor did so by train.   The fact that you can transfer to WMATA rail trains from the cavernous and renovated Union Station makes it even a more desirable and relaxing way to travel. 

I've been to Union Station a few times during my DC trips to not only catch WMATA rail trains from there, I've also shopped and had dinner there as well.starting with my 1998 lobby trip to DC. 

We do have an Amtrak train that comes through H-town three times a week in the Sunset Limited that runs from Los Angeles through Tucson and San Antonio to New Orleans.  

The Amtrak terminal here is a small one on Washington Ave, but for those of you who frequently travel on METRORail's Red Line you'll note that the Burnett TC Station platform s elevated.  

It was designed that way to not only to get over the railroad tracks there, but was part of a design for an intermodal transit station that would have combined the light rial line with METRO bus, commuter rail, and intercity bus service that got canceled in 2010.  

It could possibly be revived when METRO gets the funding to build it and talks with Greyhound and other bus carriers with bus stations scattered across H-town allow it to happen, but for now the small train station at 902 Washington Ave that was opened in 1959 is what we have to work with. 

In New Orleans the Amtrak terminal is less that a mile from the Superdome and the New Orleans Arena and 1.4 miles from Bourbon Street and the French Quarter.   Eastbound Sunset Limited travelers from Houston can connect in New Orleans with the City of New Orleans route that goes through Memphis and eventually ends up in Chicago or the Crescent that goes through the ATL and eventually ends in New York. 


The Sunset Limited if I ride westbound on it, I can connect with the Texas Eagle in San Antonio to go through Dallas, Little Rock, St. Louis and eventually end up in Chicago to connect with the routes that go through there or if I continue from San Antonio to the Sunset Limited's western terminus in Los Angeles' Union Station I can connect with all of the West Coast service which goes through that city. 

What has me musing and talking about train travel is the announcement that the Amtrak Writers Residency program is official and I applied for it.   If my application for one of the coveted Amtrak residencies is accepted, that train trip in the States could be happening sooner rather than in the hazy future.

The new Amtrak Residency program is taking applications for up to 24 writers to experience round trip train travel while honing their craft.   The idea came to fruition after New York based writer Jessica Gross got major attention after her piece Writing The Lakeshore Limited was published by the Paris Review and another writer tweeted that he wished that Amtrak had residences for writers. 

Well, what Alexander Chee put out there in the Twitterverse and Jessica Gross got to test drive is now an official Amtrak program that 24 writers will get the opportunity do.  

The selected writers will get to combine their passions for train travel and writing and take a long distance round trip Amtrak train ride subject to availability to work on their craft.   It's one thing to travel by bus or car across sections of the country and I've done both in my life.   It would be an amazing experience entirely to travel across the country by train and get to write about it.  

It appeals to the history buff in me because train travel evokes memories of an era before passenger jet service and the interstate highway system when it was the preferred luxurious way to go across country and had the same cachet among Hollywood stars of that era of traveling by private jet or in first class.  

The selected Amtrak writing residents will be given a private sleeper car equipped with a desk, bed, power outlets and a window to watch the American countryside roll by for inspiration with the Amtrak routes the resident travels to be determined based on availability.   

The residency applications will be accepted on a rolling basis and reviewed by a panel with up to 24 lucky writers being selected for the program starting March 17, 2014 through March 31, 2015. 

What are the qualifications for the residency?   A passion for writing (check) and an aspiration to travel with Amtrak for inspiration (double check) are the sole criteria for selection with both emerging and established writers being considered for it.   Residencies will be anywhere from 2-5 days and you can apply here.


Thanks to my homegirl Dawn Wilson I've been aware of and interested in it since the Gross article came out, but had to wait until Amtrak finalized the details about the residency program before I could apply

Since I have applied, the hurry up and wait hard part is coming.  But the bottom line is I have just as good a chance as anyone else who has submitted an application to win one of those 24 potential slots.

Hopefully if I'm blessed enough to be one of the people selected, you'll see a post coming from me composed as I rode the rails with new laptop in hand taking in the countryside of whatever route I'm fortunate to be on.  

Did You Spring Forward In 2014?

We are now as of 2 AM on Daylight Savings Time until November 2.  So if you neglected to move those clocks up one hour, that's why you've been or will be if you don't handle your time change business an hour late for everything today. 

As for the CPAC conservafools that have been running around in Washington DC since Thursday, they're still trying to move the clock back to the 18th century.

Time to spring forward...
 

Kentucky HB 171 Hearing Testimony

It was one of the things I was working on before I left Kentucky, and I was pleased to hear that the statewide Fairness Bill, HB 171 finally got a committee hearing in the Kentucky House.

It was introduced back on February 5 and assigned to the House Judiciary Committee the next day. 

If passed, HB 171 would protect people in the commonwealth from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, and public accommodations. 

It would also make Kentucky one of the first Southern states to do so. 

Six Kentucky cities, Louisville, Lexington, Covington, Vicco, Morehead and the state capitol of Frankfort,  representing a quarter of the state's population of 4,380,415 are covered by Fairness laws.   But those laws only protect BTLG Kentuckians if you live in one of those six cities, which is why we've had the ongoing push for a statewide Fairness law. 

HB 171 is sponsored by my former state rep when I lived in Da Ville, Mary Lou Marzian (D).  It has as co-sponsors (all Democrats) Reps. Arnold Simpson, Kelly Flood, Ruth Ann Palumbo, Joni Jenkins, Jim Wayne and Susan Westrom    Speaker of the House Greg Stumbo is considering becoming a co sponsor as well and House Judiciary Committee chairman John Tilley (D-Hopkinsville) indicated in an interveiew that he supports HB 171.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2014/03/05/3122897/after-15-years-lawmakers-hold.html#storylink=cpy

.  .
The General Assembly is not yet ready to vote on a civil rights bill covering gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, Tilley said. The bill might be called again at a future date, he said.in an interview with the Lexington Herald-Leader .

"There still is concern among members on both sides of the aisle. This hearing was an attempt to dispel some of that concern," Tilley said.

Chris Hartman, the director of the based in Da Ville Fairness Campaign, said in a Herald-Leader interview that Wednesday's hearing on the statewide fairness bill was progress because past versions of HB 171 were never even discussed in a committee.

"At the very least, there was conversation, and that ultimately engenders support," Hartman said   "Without conversation, the bill would ... languish for the next 15 years."

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2014/03/05/3122897/after-15-years-lawmakers-hold.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2014/03/05/3122897/after-15-years-lawmakers-hold.html#storylink=cpy

In the Senate it's SB 140 and is sponsored by Sen.  Morgan McGarvey (D) with co-sponsors (once again all Democrats) Sens Gerald Neal, Denise Harper Angel, Perry Clark, Reginald Thomas and Minority Whip Jerry Rhoads.   It was introduced on February 12 and assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Valentines Day.   

After 15 years of liberal-progressive Kentuckians pushing for it to happen, the hearing that Chairman Tilley talked about finally took place on March 5.  But with a divided legislature  (Republicans 23-12-1 independent in the Kentucky Senate, Democrats 54-46 in the Kentucky House) and the political shockwaves from the recent federal judicial decision invalidating Kentucky's same sex marriage amendment still reverberating throughout the Commonwealth, this may be all we get before the session ends in April

Then again, I never thought I see a Fairness law passed in Frankfort either. 

You can check out the video testimony from the HB 171 hearing.






. 

Let's Go 2014 Houston Dynamo!

One of the interesting things about Major League Soccer is that like baseball, it has a long season and a very short offseason. 

It was just last November I was pissed off about the injury riddled Dynamo just missing out on their third straight trip to the MLS Cup championship match after falling to our hated rivals Sporting KC in the Eastern Conference finals.

I was angered by the Hateraid coming from other MLS fans jealous of the fact the Houston Dynamo had been to back to back MLS Cups and unfortunately lost to the LA Galaxy both times. 

And with me gleefully watching our MLS Cup tormentors be knocked out of the 2013 MLS Cup playoffs by Real Salt Lake I was hoping the Men In Orange would survive that series, we'd play Real Salt Lake and I'd get to finally witness a Dynamo championship parade in downtown Houston.

But that dream got ruined by Sporting KC and the referees.  Kofi Sarkodie scored in the 18th minute in that November 9 Eastern Conference final first leg in Houston, but it was disallowed. 

That goal would have given the two-time defending MLS Eastern Conference champions a win and a 1-0 aggregate score lead instead of the 0-0 draw we headed into Kansas City on November 23 with.  

The 2-1 loss at Sporting Park sent SKC to the December 7 MLS Cup title game they eventually won in a penalty kick shootout..

Well, that's over and I did my bitching about it back in November.  I was so mad I refused to even watch MLS Cup 2013.  

Would be nice for the Dynamo to flip their usual playoff script and at least shoot for the Supporters Shield so we could host those playoff second legs for a change.  

The other benefit of having the best record or as close to the top of the table as possible so that the Men In Orange would as the higher seed host the second leg of aggregate score playoff series.   Should they go on one of their patented Dynamo Time playoff runs through the MLS Eastern Conference bracket, they would host a potential MLS Cup title game at BBVA Compass Stadium.

So why am I talking about the other football team in H-town for a moment?  Because the 2014 MLS season kicked off today and I'm anxiously waiting for their sister squad, the Houston Dash to start NWSL play next month.   

La Naranja started off this campaign in the cozy confines of BBVA Compass Stadium with their opening match opposition being the 2013 MLS Eastern Conference semifinalists, the New England Revolution.

The Dynamo got the season opening party started in grand style with a 4-0 blowout win over the Revs in front of a record sellout crowd at BBVA Compass Stadium.  

The 22,320 orange clad peeps had barely gotten their butts into their seats when Will Bruin scored his first goal just 64 seconds into the contest to get this 2014 MLS campaign off to a wonderful start.    

The Men In Orange got a second Will Bruin goal in the 13th minute.  Bruin also got an assist on the 23rd minute rocket that Oscar Boniek Garcia blasted past New England goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth to help the Dynamo cruise to a 3-0 halftime lead. 

It was the Dynamo's night, and the score might have even been more lopsided had Shuttleworth not made spectacular saves on one on one breakaway opportunities by Bruin and Omar Cummings. 

Cummings finally got the goal that was denied him in stoppage time as a shot from Ricardo Clark bounced off his head and into the net

Hey, as Cummings demonstrated in last year's MLS playoffs, he does have a knack for scoring stoppage time goals.

Ask New York Red Bulls fans about that. 

Next up is a match against the hated Montreal Impact, who the Dynamo sent packing in a contentious Eastern Conference knockout game that a couple of Impact players took literally at the end of of it. 

Let's Go Dynamo!
 

Told Y'all Conservafools Don't Care About Non-White Americans

Every time I start riffing on this blog about the many ways that conservatism only benefits wealthy white people and I call it and the Republican Party the political arm of white supremacy, I get pushback from self described liberal and moderate conservatives who try to claim that the Republican Party isn't as bad as I point out in my blog posts. 

Hey, I've been diplomatic in my blog posts.  Your party is actually far worse.  

Ever since the announcement in the wake of the ballyhooed post-mortem after the 2012 election that the GOP and conservative movement was going to do serious outreach to non-white communities, I've been skeptical about how successful this round of it was going to be given that I've been hearing this line from them since the 80's..   And so far, this latest  round of outreach has been the laughing my butt off disaster I expected it to be.

They have two impossible and diametrically opposed tasks they are trying to accomplish .  How are you going to persuade non-whites to join their party without saying something homophobic, sexist and racist coming out of their mouths?  

More importantly, how are you going to convince non-white people to join your party while simultaneously refusing to modify or change your policy stances that are offensive to non-whites like your voter suppression efforts, your attacks on the poor and attacks on women? 

And frankly, your policy stances not only suck, but don't help anyone except rich white men.   Don't even get me started about the person you have delivering the message in Sen. Rand Paul.   It is those policy stances coming from overwhelmingly white spokespeople that turn off people of color, combined with the insensitive and racist rhetoric you use to sell those policies.

It also doesn't help your cause that the non-white members of the movement and your party that you hold up as leaders like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas, Sen Tim Scott (R-SC), Allen West, and Mia Love are deeply unpopular and considered sellouts in our ranks.  

Meanwhile the folks you should be putting out there to represent you like Colin Powell and Erika Harold you disrespect as RINO's or worse. 

The empty CPAC room for the Thursday minority outreach panel shows just how much a priority it is for the conservative movement to address that problem or how much credence conservative activists put toward solving tit. 

But the United States is a country that is growing more ethnically diverse by the day. and you can no longer get 75% of the white vote and win national elections.  The voter suppression  tactics aren't going to work forever because demographics and time are not on your side and they piss the people victimized by them off.  


If you are serious about attracting people of color to your party, you have two choices.  You're going to have to come up with more moderate policy stances that will alienate your anti-government, anti-tax, anti-human rights, anti-education base or you can continue on your present path and continue to draw miniscule numbers of non-white people to your events and cede their votes to the Democrats.    

Looks like you're choosing Option B, which is fine with me as a Democrat.   You've made it quite clear since the 60's you don't care about me and the feeling's mutual.   Because of your lack of political vision, and refusal to politically evolve, you will continue to see the White House and eventually the nation turn blue, and send you back to the political wilderness that you so richly deserve.