Before Race Detective Charles Johnson jumps to a big fat pasty-white conclusion, this is a real book written by Baratunde Thurston just in time for Black History Month, and it’s available here. With mere hours remaining before all of black history is packed up and sent to the attic for another year, let’s celebrate diversity on The Overnight Open Thread.
Tags: Baratunde Thurston, Black History Month, Charles Johnson, Overnight Open Thread









Thurston needs this book more.
“…OR the U.S. gov’t was less effecient in shutting it down than it was setting it up”
I’m laughing already.
Great find Buck!
“I feel like a seat cushion for two fat people at a football game”
Justified dialog.
doesn’t get any better
Will the First Wookie buy it for her per Orc??
Enquiring minds want to know…
Also available on iTunes!
@ Zimriel:
Hey! Wanted to let you know I bought your book. It will be awhile before I get to it, but it’s in the que. Looks great……….
@ Zimriel:
I read some of the excerpts, and the snark amused me.
@ eaglesoars:
I found the pic first and thought it was an absurd photoshop until I looked for the title on Amazon. Guy works with The Onion, too, so he’s got a bit of cred.
Bunk X wrote:
You find the weirdest stuff. I remember the vid you found of the robot in the maze.
You define ‘has way too much time on his hands’
But I’m grateful………..
@ eaglesoars:
Android 207 was creepy, and I loved it!
@ Bunk X:
@ Bunk X:
THAT’S IT!
I could NOT stop watching it. But I can’t again. It’s sad. Poor bot.
Okay, I’m getting tired of winter.
It’s like I live in Colorado or something…
@ eaglesoars:
The ending is happy. He passed all the tests.
@ lobo91:
send it my way. 2 yrs in a row I haven’t had a chance to wear those Italian boots I got or the driver coat I got from Cabelas.
eaglesoars wrote:
It’s blowing your direction.
Might take a few days to get there.
Bunk X wrote:
for all the good it did him
lobo91 wrote:
5 day forcast is sunny
gotta go -- finishing up some chores
thanks again Buck
Hey thank you eagle! Rodan said he got another one, and some “Morons” (who may or may not post here as well) grabbed more.
Email me if you have tips for making it more readable!
@ eaglesoars:
But he did well and can look forward to a new job.
Speaking of Black History Month, this is interesting. It’s an objective presentation without the typical revisionism, even in the comments. http://virginiaplantation.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/slavery-in-virginia-and-belle-grove/
@ Zimriel:
How ’bout linking to it again?
@ Bunk X:
The main site
Books are on the left sidebar.
(I’ve been busy.)
Black History Month?…no cred til they tell the story of the Jamaican Maroons…so much trumped up crap spoils the history…google those guys, a hell of a Black History Month story they never tell
eaglesoars is probably talking about “House of War” which is the one done for the Blogmocracy audience (reasonably-informed amateurs). The other one is for nerds.
@ Zimriel:
Cool. Looks like some heavy reading. I’ll pass the word.
@ heysoos:
Hell yeah. Had it not been Black History Month, that pic wouldn’t have been taken, I wouldn’t have read excerpts of the book, so I wouldn’t have hunted these folks down to post this vid for your enjoyment:
@ Bunk X:
Wayback song
@ heysoos:
Escaped slaves hunkered down in the mountains of Jamaica, brokered a deal for relative autonomy, then returned runaway slaves to collect bounties.
Interesting.
This is a fun blog to check now and then. Good for a certain mood.
http://jazzagemusic.blogspot.ca/
Of course you can “change your race” if you want to. If some whackjob can claim to be “born the wrong sex” on the basis of their feelings, despite the scientific evidence™ of their physical body and their DNA, then anybody who wants to claim that they are “black” can do so, regardless of whether or not they have any melanin-enhanced antecedents.
Look at pretendian Ward Churchill, or fauxahontas Elizabeth Warren; they were “Indian” merely because they believed, just like the attendees at a Peter Pan performance who clap to bring Tinkerbelle back to life. Why shouldn’t anyone who really believes that they’ve got rhythm be denied their own personal opportunity to claim their very own Kunta Kinte in the family tree? What—you’re saying that they are claiming something that isn’t real? Well, so was Alex Haley, when he cribbed his fictitious Kunta Kinte story from an earlier novel. So what is the difference between Alex Haley inventing a phony personal history and somebody who is as pale as Eric Holder doing so? Are we to be racist when it comes to accepting phony genealogy?
Here’s to the “transracial” future!
yenta-fada wrote:
“He’s Not Worth Your Tears” is a great number.
@ yenta-fada:
Very nice. I’ve always had an interest in early American music. The Lomax brothers probably did more to preserve it than anyone.
If you listen to early “country” music, there are so many traceable influences (in rhythms, chords and instruments) especially Scottish and West African. They blended in the Shenandoah Valley in the late 1700s/early 1800s.
@ yenta-fada:
BTW-- Calo was looking for you recently. She thought you’d be interested in a post on Diary of Daedalus. Not sure why.
Bunk X wrote:
…and did more than anyone to lay the groundwork for the communist takeover of American culture.
@ yenta-fada:
“Mean Mothers” is a nice collection of music from the 1920s through 1950 or so. Some of the songs are nasty. Don’t be put off by the feminist packaging, the songs are great.
@ buzzsawmonkey:
Meh. I was only talking of music preservation. We’d have never heard of Robert Johnson, and neither would have all the rock bands who stole his music without credit.
Bunk X wrote:
Yikes!
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
When I catch a glimpse of guys like Pete Seeger (sp?) at White House performances, I get brain freeze.
Bunk X wrote:
I can’t imagine American music without the many black forms of gospel, blues,& jazz through the decades.
Bunk X wrote:
You have the album/tape/cd?
Bunk X wrote:
Bullshit. Johnson recorded his music on records, not on Alan Lomax’s tape recorder—or wire recorder, as it probably was then. There’s lots of music from that period that is well known to collectors; I may be a piker, with my mere 400 78s, compared to the 10,000 which a friend of mine owns, but there’s a world of music that’s out there that people know about if they are record collectors.
The Lomax brothers may have found some interesting material, but the only things they really found were things like prison chants and auctioneer calls. Most of the rest of the stuff was commercially recorded by all sorts of small labels. The Lomaxes (and Seeger and the other communists who were at the heart of the “folk music revival”) were more intent on creating a “you didn’t build that” of music which was the basis for the Left’s invention of, and takeover of, popular culture.
yenta-fada wrote:
Thank the Gennett record label, and the “race” series of records by Victor and Columbia, and a hundred now-defunct cheap labels like Perfect, Cameo, OKeh, and Bluebird, for that.
Bunk X wrote:
Again, these were works done by all sorts of cheap and independent labels. The Lomaxes had nothing to do with these recordings.
“You can do the work or you can take the credit, but you can’t do both.”
—my lobbyist friend in DC
@ yenta-fada:
I have the cd.
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
Can you still find these on ebay?
@ buzzsawmonkey:
Okay perhaps I’m mistaken on Robert Johnson, as if I was intentionally making up shit.
This place has changed a lot in the time I’ve been gone. What nic is Sharmuta using?
Bunk X wrote:
Thanks! After finally getting rid of our OLD turntables, we went out and got a new one last year because we couldn’t part with most of the albums we owned. I’m not a big purist who needs vinyl, but it’s great to spin a record from the collection.
@ buzzsawmonkey:
Good God. I mention the Lomax’ bros. and you start foaming? I didn’t claim that the cd I mentioned to Yenta had anything to do with them.
@ yenta-fada:
Yenta-- Get my email from Calo and I’ll send it to you.
I’m outta here.
yenta-fada wrote:
I’ve never looked on ebay for 78s, though I’d be surprised if there weren’t some to be had there.
Bunk X wrote:
I don’t have Calo’s email. You can get mine from Rodan. Don’t be a stranger.
I cannot believe people are collecting these again.
http://www.eclectisaurus.com/tmtypewritermuseum.html
Bunk X wrote:
Hey, I’m dealing with an aged parent at the moment. Perhaps I’ve got a surfeit of frustration built up.
In any event, my point was a fairly simple one; whatever the Lomax Bros. may have found/recorded, it was done in the service of/with the objective of appropriating the popular culture in the service of the Party. That’s a fact that exists right alongside of whatever actual good their work did. And some of it, I’ll freely admit, was good—but that is part of the perniciousness of subversion.
Bunk X wrote:
Probably mine.
Seriously, I’m sorry I went off on Thurston right off the bat -- a little sorry, anyway. It’s annoying for me (personally) that the culture is so wholly owned by the Left. Thurston is very Left, when he’s not being funny. So when he is funny, I just have to take peoples’ word for it, because honestly I can’t look past his work for The Onion and Kos.
If he was apolitical I’m sure I could look past it.
yenta-fada wrote:
If I had the money and the deskspace I’d pay some geek to rustle me up a desktop computer which had an old manual typewriter adapted for the keyboard, and a vintage ’50s TV for the monitor.
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
I love ebay, but since they went to paypal (double-dipping from buyer and seller) I don’t use it much anymore. There are wonderful things on there though.
I’m a luddite about paypal.
yenta-fada wrote:
You don’t approve of robbing Peter for Paypal?
@ yenta-fada:
Czech yinzmail.
yenta-fada wrote:
Paypal
People who use Paypal
Are the suckeriest people in the world…
@ buzzsawmonkey:
Sad to hear about a sick parent. My mother had Alzheimers. These things are very hard on a family as well as the individual involved. Prayers for you.
[deleted by Bunk X]
@ Bunk X:
We definitely need to re-instate the prayer list. It certainly can’t hurt, and it might just help.
Sorry to hear the all your woes at the same time. Music and mockery needed more than ever.
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
Ha, you skipped Luddite.
Bunk X wrote:
Received and returned.
@ yenta-fada:
There are more, but I’m not interested in telling details on a OOT happy thread. And my post above is now deleted.
@ Bunk X:
Yikes. Yes prayers are in order
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
You might be surprised at how many 78s you can find on ebay. It’s fun, even if you’re just browsing.
It’s also better than TV.
Bunk X wrote:
I wish real life had a ‘delete’ function. /
yenta-fada wrote:
Thank you!
Zimriel wrote:
Yes, they are.
BatGuano wrote:
Are you messing with me? ‘Cause if you are, I don’t care. lol
@ yenta-fada:
I was thanking you for posting The Marveletts, please Mr. Postman.
BatGuano wrote:
You are most welcome. I just listened to it twice and considering another go.
If anybody is interested, the voting is on for blog awards.
http://2013.bloggi.es/
@ yenta-fada:
I was six years old when it was current and I remember it.
yenta-fada wrote:
Charles wins for diving to the bottom of obscurity.
Happy story for an OOT
http://www.viddler.com/embed/70d1d214/?f=1&offset=0&autoplay=0&secret=48017121&disablebranding=0
Speaking of old songs, here’s a classic.
BatGuano wrote:
Umm. I was three. Yep, mebbe four. /
Calo wrote:
That was great!
BatGuano wrote:
And continuing to dig.
@ Calo:
Too late to stay and chat. Snowing here. ‘night Calo.
@ yenta-fada:
Night Yenya.
Me too.
No old songs here. The wife is still asleep so no time to be playing stuff.
@ yenta-fada:
Should have done the Piaf with the English subtitles!
yenta-fada wrote:
That is little Jimmy Brown!
@ yenta-fada:
The Browns.
I’m out of here too.No one left.
@ BatGuano:
Humpf…
@ BatGuano:
The Browns take me back to when I was still a slugger in the minors.
Jump to the weekend of the 15th….it was bloody cold out in Ottawa.
@ PaladinPhil:
I quite liked our visit to Montreal in the first half of March a couple of years back. Yes, it was cold, and there was snow and ice piled here and there, but there were sure less tourists… Did the same deal in Beijing earlier. I’m about to the point where I’d rather go see these places when nobody else wants to.
@ Mike C.:
I was up during winterlude. A lot of tourists there. I hear what you are saying though. Off peak is less crowded, and often much cheaper as well.
@ PaladinPhil:
Business contact of mine just got back from Banff, and I’ll bet it’s nippy up there. But then, this is probably high season there.
@ Mike C.:
Yep, off season is in the late summer early fall. You can get some great room deals then. The scenery is really good that time of year as well. Spent my honeymoon west of there in Panorama Resort near Invermere in late August of 95.