So on a daily basis, I find myself interacting with people (mostly on Facebook) who don’t understand racism, sexism, homophobia and other similar concepts. They aren’t really that difficult to understand, I don’t think, but I’ve made it a career choice and a personal interest to understand people who are different from me and the history that has led to the present state of discrimination, prejudice and negativity that affects those groups. I know not everyone has the time to minor in women’s studies or learn the material sufficient to teach black history classes like I did, so I’m going to give you a handy guide to how to avoid being racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic and other things that you might want to avoid being if you want to have a productive life in a modern society.

So here you go, if you do any of these things below in connection with your interactions with or discussion of a particular group of people based on their demographic characteristics (race, gender, age, religion, sexual identity, ethnicity, national origin, etc.), then you are entering into territory where you are being offensive and morally wrong. This doesn’t make you a racist, sexist, etc., automatically, but it does push you in that direction and you should examine your actions, words, etc.

1. Directing physical or emotional harm or wishing harm upon the group

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If you've spent any time on Twitter, you've inevitably bumped up against someone who is hateful. If you tweet about politics on Twitter, racist and homophobic tweets are as common as falling leaves on an autumn day. They come from many different sources, as you've seen just from our Stupid Right-Wing Tweets feature.

Geographically, though, they emanate from a concentrated area of the South and Midwest, as shown on the map above, as analyzed by FloatingSheep.org:

The prominence of debates around online bullying and the censorship of hate speech prompted us to examine how social media has become an important conduit for hate speech, and how particular terminology used to degrade a given minority group is expressed geographically. As we’ve documented in a variety of cases, the virtual spaces of social media are intensely tied to particular socio-spatial contexts in the offline world, and as this work shows, the geography of online hate speech is no different.

Rather than focusing just on hate directed towards a single individual at a single point in time, we wanted to analyze a broader swath of discriminatory speech in social media, including the usage of racist, homophobic and ableist slurs.

Using DOLLY to search for all geotagged tweets in North America between June 2012 and April 2013, we discovered 41,306 tweets containing the word ‘nigger’, 95,123 referenced ‘homo’, among other terms. In order to address one of the earlier criticisms of our map of racism directed at Obama, students at Humboldt State manually read and coded the sentiment of each tweet to determine if the given word was used in a positive, negative or neutral manner. This allowed us to avoid using any algorithmic sentiment analysis or natural language processing, as many algorithms would have simply classified a tweet as ‘negative’ when the word was used in a neutral or positive way. For example the phrase ‘dyke’, while often negative when referring to an individual person, was also used in positive ways (e.g. “dykes on bikes #SFPride”). The students were able to discern which were negative, neutral, or positive. Only those tweets used in an explicitly negative way are included in the map.

That last paragraph describes how important this study really is. By actually analyzing the context and meaning contained in the individual tweets, students were able to cull out those tweets which may have used their key terms but not in an intended negative manner.

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Another day, another racist headline from somewhere in the wingnutosphere ....

This ran recently at the Daily Caller. Where, evidently, no stereotype is too dessicated to trot out once again, and the phrase "illegals" is still considered just A-OK. (It has been taken down since.)

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It appears that Rand Paul had his little fee-fees hurt over the blowback from his attempt to whitesplain African American history to students at Howard University. Now he's suggesting that it's because...wait for it...racism against white people. No, really:

Paul acknowledged criticism for the speech he gave at Howard University Wednesday, saying, “I think some think a white person is not allowed to talk about black history ... which I think is unfair.”

Please. The students at Howard University didn't confront you because you were white, they did it because you were disingenuous and wrong.

he talked about how blacks once registered in large numbers as Republicans, how Democrats in Kentucky opposed constitutional amendments that gave African Americans expanded rights and how Henry Watterson, editor of The Courier-Journal from its creation in 1868 until 1919, opposed letting black people vote.

“Much of the public doesn’t know that anymore, and part of my reason for bringing it out was that so people know Republicans aren’t hostile to civil rights or somehow to African Americans,” he said.

Um...facts are inconvenient things, I know. But let me throw out a few chapters Paul neglected in his history lesson: Dixiecrats. The Southern Strategy. Lee Atwater. Ronald Reagan. Paul assumed because he elided through these telling chapters that these college students -- most of whom have had to deal with the effects of racism their entire lives -- would be ignorant of them. Again, that's not racist, that's just stupid and arrogant. Ta-Nehisi Coates:

Rand Paul went to Howard University, lied, and then got his ass kicked. That's not so bad. I got my ass kicked regularly at Howard. That was the reason my parents sent me there. But having gotten his ass kicked, his answer is to not to reflect but to make an allegation of racial discrimination.

One of the things I try to do in my work is -- in general -- take people at their word. It's very hard to communicate about anything without good faith. This, of course, assumes that communication is the goal. That was my assumption about Rand Paul. I was clearly wrong.

Media Matters: (h/t Sassywho)

Summary: Discussing his recent dinner with Rev. Al Sharpton at the Harlem restaurant Sylvia's, Bill O'Reilly reported that he "couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship." O'Reilly added: "There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, 'M-Fer, I want more iced tea.'" Read more...

Because we know BillO's fans are so civilized and polite. You can listen to the audio clip of the segment here.

I guess you have noticed that racism isn't dead. It never has been and it never will in our lifetime no matter what conservatives try to tell you.

Here's the latest example of targeted racism against blacks in NYC:

This week, the court heard a troubling recording secretly made last month by Officer Pedro Serrano, of the 40th Precinct, in the South Bronx. Mr. Serrano is one of a handful of officers who began tape-recording conversations with their colleagues or superiors to document what they saw as wrongdoing.

In the recording, Deputy Inspector Christopher McCormack is heard urging Mr. Serrano to stop, question and, if necessary, frisk “the right people at the right time, the right location.” When Mr. Serrano asked for clarification about who the “right people” were, the inspector replied: “The problem was, what, male blacks.” He continued, “And I told you at roll call, and I have no problem telling you this, male blacks 14 to 20, 21.”

On its face, this would seem to violate the Fourth Amendment, which protects citizens against unlawful search and seizure. Police officers can legally stop and detain a person only when they have a reasonable suspicion that the person is committing, has committed or is about to commit a crime.

The trial court also heard this week from Officer Adhyl Polanco of the 41st Precinct, who had taped proceedings in his station house. Mr. Polanco testified that officers were subject to a quota system, which required them to write more summonses, make more arrests and create stop-and-frisk encounters. He said that his superiors wanted “20 summons and one arrest per month.” The plaintiffs argue that a quota system put officers under pressure to make unconstitutional stops.

if you think NYC is the only city doing this, then I have a bridge to sell you.

I have been abundantly blessed. I am a white, happily married woman in a high enough socio-economic class that I have the freedom to stay home to raise my kids. I have grown up with people who valued education, family, diversity, culture, progressive politics, open-mindedness, debate and giving back to others. I live in a fairly liberal and diverse area that is not struggling economically as much as other areas. I haven't known poverty, hunger or deep struggle first-hand. I have had my share of misogyny, but I've never known racism and honestly, haven't been around people who say racist things, either.

This is not a humblebrag. This is to acknowledge from the outset that I am completely aware my life does not necessarily mirror the struggles of others in this country. I'm not a Romney or a Rockefeller, but to complain about the problems I do grapple with would be yet another example of white privileged First World Problems, annoyingly out of touch.

But I am not without empathy. And it is that empathy that impels me to look past my white privilege and see the struggles of others who are not as fortunate as me in birth. It is that empathy that forces me to look at how deep the undercurrents of racism still inform our daily lives, decades after Jim Crow and demand that I analyze how much of the assumptions I make are due to privilege of my birth. Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote a column that points straight to that ugliness with which people of color must live every single day.

The idea that racism lives in the heart of particularly evil individuals, as opposed to the heart of a democratic society, is reinforcing to anyone who might, from time to time, find their tongue sprinting ahead of their discretion. We can forgive [actor Forrest] Whitaker’s assailant. Much harder to forgive is all that makes Whitaker stand out in the first place. New York is a city, like most in America, that bears the scars of redlining, blockbusting and urban renewal. The ghost of those policies haunts us in a wealth gap between blacks and whites that has actually gotten worse over the past 20 years.

But much worse, it haunts black people with a kind of invisible violence that is given tell only when the victim happens to be an Oscar winner. The promise of America is that those who play by the rules, who observe the norms of the “middle class,” will be treated as such. But this injunction is only half-enforced when it comes to black people, in large part because we were never meant to be part of the American story. Forest Whitaker fits that bill, and he was addressed as such.

I am trying to imagine a white president forced to show his papers at a national news conference, and coming up blank. I am trying to a imagine a prominent white Harvard professor arrested for breaking into his own home, and coming up with nothing. I am trying to see Sean Penn or Nicolas Cage being frisked at an upscale deli, and I find myself laughing in the dark. It is worth considering the messaging here. It says to black kids: “Don’t leave home. They don’t want you around.” It is messaging propagated by moral people.

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I am very happy for the people of Alabama that they have at least one public official who understands history and the importance of acknowledging it, and I am thrilled that Rep. John Lewis lived to see it:

An Alabama police chief brought Rep. John Lewis to tears Saturday, apologizing to the noted civil rights leader for failing to protect the Freedom Riders during a trip to Montgomery in 1961.

Lewis and fellow civil rights activists were beaten by a mob after arriving at Montgomery's Greyhound station in May, 1961.

On Saturday at ceremony at First Baptist Church, the city's current police chief, Kevin Murphy, apologized to Lewis and offered him his badge in a gesture of reconciliation, telling the longtime Georgia congressman that Montgomery police had "enforced unjust laws" in failing to protect the Freedom Riders more than five decades ago.

Lewis, who was arrested during civil rights protests in cities across the south, said it was the first time a police chief had apologized to him.

"It means a great deal," Lewis said. "I teared up. I tried to keep from crying."

Lewis and other members of Congress were taking part in the 13th Congressional Civil Rights Pilgrimage to Alabama, a three-day event that also included trips to Selma, Tuscaloosa and Birmingham.

Murphy said the decision to apologize was easy.

"For me, freedom and the right to live in peace is a cornerstone of our society and that was something that Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and Congressman Lewis were trying to achieve," Murphy said. "I think what I did today should have been done a long time ago. It needed to be done. It needed to be spoken because we have to live with the truth and it is the truth."

They just can't help themselves. Whole Foods CEO John Mackey has not been exactly circumspect about his disdain for our current president and his policies. I can't say that Mackey had anything to do with this or if his attitude has simply trickled down to the stores, but this is just sad:

Woody Henderson, a resident in the Upper East Side took pictures of the racist sign of President Obama eating chicken in an aesthetically unpleasant manner at the Whole Foods store at Columbus Avenue and 97th Street in New York.

Henderson said he was very offended by the caricature of the President and the message it conveyed. The sign was for a one-day sale of chicken.

Henderson went to the local NBC affiliate in New York to complain. They went to Whole Foods for a statement, which predictably denied any racist intent and removed the signs.

But c'mon. How many depictions of the president and First Lady in conjunction with fried chicken, watermelon and apes do we need to see before we stop giving them the benefit of the doubt and just call it for the racism it is?

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In case you missed it, Fox has been agog over the release of some “exposé” video of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s sensitivity training. Needless to say, the "fair and balanced" network doesn't bother to go into the history of racism and discrimination at the USDA that led to a major class action civil rights case and settlement. On Fox & Friends Weekend, Tucker Carlson presented the training as left-wing brainwashing that violates the civil rights of white people.

In 2010, the Washington Post reported:

The USDA's relationship with minorities has been fraught for decades. Nearly eight years ago, black farmers took over a regional office in Brownsville, Tenn., to protest the agency's pace in processing their loan applications. Under the Bush administration, the agriculture secretary appointed a civil rights director, a practice that continues in the Obama era.

Plus, there was the whole Shirley Sherrod thing.

But you’d never know any of that from watching Carlson and his guest, Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch, “the group that exposed this tape.” It’s also the group that seems to believe no excuse is too flimsy to suggest that President Obama should be impeached.

CARLSON: The theme that underlies this whole video is that white men are bad. How is that a federal contractor gets to make a racist case like this and take federal money and no one says anything about it?

…If you swapped out ‘white males’ for any other group in American society and you held a seminar like this at a federal agency, you’d have the Justice Department on you in about 20 minutes, don’t you think?

Naturally, Fitton thought so. But, as head of Judicial Watch, he had a broader mission: to make this about the Obama administration. “This seminar is full of racial hostility,” he said. “It goes on throughout the government. This is just the tip of the iceberg. This is one component of one agency in the federal government. …This is standard operating procedure for the diversity cult that is infecting our government, major corporations.”

But Carlson, feigning bewilderment, “just wondered” why the government is doing this (without bothering to lift a finger to find out) before going on to suggest that the whole point is to make race relations worse:

I thought the whole idea of electing President Obama was that America could move past this kind of divisive talk, that we would rise above our history and yet we’re wallowing in the worst parts of it here. Why?

…If you’re a participant in one of these seminars and you spend all day hearing about how white men are bad, wouldn’t at the end you feel a little hostility toward white men? Is there any surprise that our race relations are still bad?

Fitton said, ”They highlight the differences between people as opposed to the things that unite us.”

That’s completely wrong, of course. The obvious point of the training, as seen in the clip aired in this segment, is to get people, including the white majority, to understand other perspectives and broaden their own – which can lead to unity. It speaks volumes that this would be poison to the ears of Carlson and Fitton.

Yet, as is the genius of Fox News, Fitton and Carlson didn't just argue against the training. They used it to play the racial/governmental victims in order to advance their own hostile, divisive agenda: painting the (Obama-headed) federal government as some kind of stealth Affirmative Action juggernaut riding roughshod over white people and their money.

Fitton made that point explicitly at the end: I think these types of programs lead to increased disputes about racial discrimination and hostility that are really baseless. …It’s a major problem in our federal government. …This is a lot of what goes on in Washington, in terms of everyday government and what bureaucrats do each and every day. And we need to talk about it more.

Thanks to Fox News, it's almost certain he'll have plenty of opportunity to do so.