Link Salad, the Late (Night) Heartbreak Edition
-- Sires and Sons: Personal history, the retirement of Bodemeister, and the supposed "death of horse racing" - David Hill, Grantland.com, August 23, 2012
"Gus just learned to say "horse" a few weeks ago while we watched the replay of the Kentucky Derby. On Belmont day he was anxious to see a horse up close. I carried him up to the rail during the post-parade. A groom walked one of the ponies over to the fence for him to pet. He nervously put his hand on the pony's star. The horse nodded his muzzle. Gus jerked his hand back and laughed. The groom walked the pony away and Gus pointed his index finger into his palm, sign language for "more.""
-- Fear of a Black President - Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic, Sept. 2012
"The irony of Barack Obama is this: he has become the most successful black politician in American history by avoiding the radioactive racial issues of yesteryear, by being “clean” (as Joe Biden once labeled him)-and yet his indelible blackness irradiates everything he touches. This irony is rooted in the greater ironies of the country he leads. For most of American history, our political system was premised on two conflicting facts-one, an oft-stated love of democracy; the other, an undemocratic white supremacy inscribed at every level of government. In warring against that paradox, African Americans have historically been restricted to the realm of protest and agitation. But when President Barack Obama pledged to “get to the bottom of exactly what happened,” he was not protesting or agitating. He was not appealing to federal power-he was employing it. The power was black-and, in certain quarters, was received as such."
"Gus just learned to say "horse" a few weeks ago while we watched the replay of the Kentucky Derby. On Belmont day he was anxious to see a horse up close. I carried him up to the rail during the post-parade. A groom walked one of the ponies over to the fence for him to pet. He nervously put his hand on the pony's star. The horse nodded his muzzle. Gus jerked his hand back and laughed. The groom walked the pony away and Gus pointed his index finger into his palm, sign language for "more.""
-- Fear of a Black President - Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic, Sept. 2012
"The irony of Barack Obama is this: he has become the most successful black politician in American history by avoiding the radioactive racial issues of yesteryear, by being “clean” (as Joe Biden once labeled him)-and yet his indelible blackness irradiates everything he touches. This irony is rooted in the greater ironies of the country he leads. For most of American history, our political system was premised on two conflicting facts-one, an oft-stated love of democracy; the other, an undemocratic white supremacy inscribed at every level of government. In warring against that paradox, African Americans have historically been restricted to the realm of protest and agitation. But when President Barack Obama pledged to “get to the bottom of exactly what happened,” he was not protesting or agitating. He was not appealing to federal power-he was employing it. The power was black-and, in certain quarters, was received as such."