4th grade textbook - Whites are ractist for opposing Obama

Socialist Common Core "Education"

The Federally funded brainwashing of our children.

Parents in Duplo, Ill., are up in arms over a book portraying white Americans as racist –
required reading for their fourth-graders under the Common Core curriculum.

Students at Bluffview Elementary School were told they would be tested and graded on the book, “Barack Obama,” part of the Scholastic “Reading Counts” program, according to EAGNews. The author, Jane Sutcliffe, has written numerous books on other historical figures, such as George Washington, Ronald Reagan and Susan B. Anthony reports BizPac Review.

The book begins with Obama’s life as a child, referring to him as “Barry,” and frequently mentions that he was “the only black” in various settings, a situation that caused a bit of an identity crisis for him, according to this passage:

When Barry looked in the mirror, he saw a young black man. But he didn’t know how to be black. And no one was there to teach him. 

He decided to act like the black characters he saw on TV. He started acting tough. He cursed. Was that what it meant to be black? 

As he got older, he started smoking and drinking. He tried drugs. Was that what it meant to be black?

The biography refers to Obama’s candidacy in the 2008 presidential election this way:

But some people said Americans weren’t ready for that much change. Sure Barack was a nice fellow, they said. But white voters would never vote for a black president. Other angry voices were raised. Barack’s former pastor called the country a failure. God would damn the United States for mistreating its black citizens, he said.

Attention centered on the book after it was mentioned by a Facebook page, “Moms Against Duncan (MAD)” that organized earlier this month in opposition to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s comments about “white suburban moms” and Common Core.  The group’s page says:

We are trying to be not only a pushback to Duncan but also a group of action. We are asking every mom (and the guys too!) to actively recruit parents to opt out of all testing. 

We only need 10% of students from every school to refuse Arne’s tests. This will corrupt the data, protect the teachers and begin the shut down of Common Core!! Moms, this can be done! Let’s show Arne what REAL mom pushback looks like!

The group has attracted over 4,000 members so far.

You are a racist
if you oppose Socialism.

Mark Zuckerberg says immigration is a "Civil Right" - and cheap labor is good too!

Bullshit Alert

Another Billionaire for Poverty . . . Your Poverty.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said Sunday that U.S. immigration reform is “one of the biggest civil rights issues of our time.”

Shit.  Now illegal and legal immigration is a fucking "Civil Right".

The 29-year-old billionaire, who has recently taken a more active role in calling for immigration reform, made the comment on ABC’s “This Week.” And he was immediately challenged by the interviewer, who suggested many Americans would likely disagree that providing a path to citizenship for some of the 11 million people living in this country illegally is a civil rights issue.

“There are a lot of misconceptions about that,” Zuckerberg responded. “A lot of them came here because they just want to work. They want to help out their families and they want to contribute,” reports Fox News.

Zuckerberg recently founded the group FWD.us with other Silicon Valley leaders “to promote policies to keep the United States and its citizens competitive in a global economy,” according to its website.

FWD.us’ key points include securing borders, the path to citizenship and support for issuing more H-1B visas.

The group argues the change will “attract the world’s best and the brightest workers.”

However, skeptics argue that allowing U.S. employers to "temporarily" hire more educated foreign workers for skilled jobs or “specialty occupations” in such fields as technology and engineering allows companies like Facebook to hire lower-paid immigrants over college-educated Americans.

Americans Need Jobs
Billionaire assholes like Zuckerberg want to import and legalize countless millions of new workers from foreign nations to compete with Americans for a limited number of jobs and drive wages down. 
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Both political parties join with Zuckerberg in this madness.  The Democrats in order to recruit new poor voters and the GOP to serve their Masters in the business community looking for cheap labor.  Both parties could care less about the under and unemployed American citizen.

Real Unemployment is 23%
The seasonally-adjusted SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate (the blue line) reflects current unemployment reporting methodology adjusted for SGS-estimated long-term discouraged workers, who were defined out of official existence in 1994. That estimate is added to the BLS estimate of U-6 unemployment, which includes short-term discouraged workers.
.

The U-3 unemployment rate is the monthly headline number. The U-6 unemployment rate is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) broadest unemployment measure, including short-term discouraged and other marginally-attached workers as well as those forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment.

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See more at Shadowstats.com

De Blasio gets policing advice — from ex-cons

Socialism in Action

The insane new Communist Mayor of New York wants

criminals to tell him how to reform the police department.

Communist Democrat New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is getting his policing advice from the real experts — hardened criminals.

A group of 50 ex-cons, kidnappers, junkies and chronic vagrants gathered at a Manhattan “Think Tank” Thursday to describe what they thought the NYPD should be doing to make their lives easier.
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The felonious forum outlined a clear “get-soft-on-crime” vision.

“I like the idea of ending stop and frisk. That was the first thing that was totally there for me,” opined Mikell Green-Grand, a 49-year-old former jailbird who has convictions for grand larceny and identity theft reports the New York Post.

Arthur Castillo, 38 — who has been convicted for possessing stolen property and assault — said he would be much obliged if the cops just left him alone to do his thing.

“Cops won’t leave us alone!” he said. “Newly released prisoners are watched by the police and a lot of us don’t feel we have an opportunity to readapt to normal life because we are treated as criminals even though we are free.”

The event, which was held in Morningside Heights, was hosted by an advisory group called Talking Transitions, run by liberal billionaire investment magnate George Soros.

The goal was to offer de Blasio tips on “policing, corrections, parole policies and more.”

Since Talking Transitions is actually advising de Blasio during his preparations for assuming office, the opinions posited by the panel of crooks and deadbeats will be relayed to him and could have real policy effects.

“Bloomberg forgot about all of us. I’m hoping DeBlasio remembers us,” said Gregorio “Koko” Cruz, 63, who was convicted of first degree manslaughter, robbery, kidnapping and criminal possession of a weapon.

“After 12 years of Bloomberg, it’s time for a change,” the thief Green-Grand added.

Castillo, of Bayside, Queens, called for de Blasio to both “redistribute” the wealth and pay what is, in effect, protection money.

“A lot of money is spent on the prison system — it should be used to cultivate prisoners lives,” he opined. “The money should be redistributed to help those who want to change while they are incarcerated.”

My kind of law enforcement

"Nothing wrong with shooting as long as
the right people get shot!"
Harry Callahan

Obama should nationalize the big corporations says Antonio Banderas

Hollywood Moonbat Alert

If he’s so into wealth redistribution why doesn’t he

hand over his millions to the government?

Don't you just love millionaire Socialists?  It is capitalism for them, but Socialism for others.

Spanish actor Antonio Banderas surprised CNN viewers when he criticized US President Barack Obama and suggested Europe and the US should apply the same economic policies as Venezuela’s late president Hugo Chávez.

During his talk with Spanish journalist Ana Pastor, Banderas was asked several questions about the current financial crisis and possible solutions to it.

The Malaga-born star pointed the finger of blame at “the markets, the lobbies, the big corporations” and suggested they didn’t have to take responsibility when countries and governments had problems.
“We’re not being governed by the people we voted for,” he told Pastor.

“How do you put a stop to that?” she asked.

“You break it like Chávez did in his day, you get all these big corporations and you nationalize them,” answered Banderas in the midst of a deafening silence.

“There was no other way out,” he added.

The Hollywood actor also criticized the US’s President Obama for not fullfilling his promises during his two terms in office and succumbing to the pressure of big business and financial markets.

Keep reading…

Student health insurance cancelled by Obama

Welcome to Obamacare Socialism

The Democrat Party is forcing colleges to cancel thousands

of low cost student health insurance policies.

While millions of Americans are watching their individual polices get canceled due to ObamaCare regulations, the new health care rules are also having a major impact on college campuses.

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For decades, universities and colleges have offered students bare-bones policies. But because of the Affordable Care Act, those policies no longer cut it – and universities are forced to decide whether to offer significantly higher-cost plans or cancel coverage altogether.

The new rules affect a broad swath of American schools, especially the small ones.

At Bowie State University in Maryland, the cost of student health insurance policies went from roughly $100 a year to $1,800 a year reports Fox News.

The cancelled plan offered $5,000 worth of medical coverage to students for just $54 per semester. University administrators said an acceptable replacement under the Affordable Care Act would have cost $900 per semester, a 1,500 percent increase.

Students who need individual coverage are likely to find a better deal for themselves on the Maryland Health Connection insurance exchange, University spokeswoman Cassandra Robinson said.

In the end, the school decided to drop the policy for all of its 5,500 enrollees. Students were notified of the dropped coverage on the school’s website.

"Bowie State University has suspended offering health insurance for domestic students for the 2013-2014 academic year," according to the school's official website. "Due to new requirements of the Affordable Care Act which will go into effect on January 1, 2014, the cost of insurance for domestic students will increase to approximately $1800 per year."

The sticker shock didn’t sit well with some students who spoke out against the price hike.

“You’ve haven’t done anything Obama and I am disappointed in you,” one student said. Another told Campus Reform, “We don’t have that money. We can barely afford books.”

The frustration has been felt across the country as colleges and universities have to decide whether to cut coverage or offer sky-high plans that in some cases triple the cost of premiums.

In New Jersey, students who enrolled in this past semester were the first class that had to shoulder the higher premium costs. Many community colleges in Bergen and Passaic counties were forced to cut student coverage altogether.

In Cranford, N.J., Stephen Nacco, the Union County Community College Vice President of Administrative Services, says the cost of health insurance is now “more than a thousand dollars per students and that it is dramatically different” than what it had been in the past.

Students were paying so little before because the coverage they received was so scant. The costs have gone up because under ObamaCare, plans must offer coverage for services like annual checkups and alcohol abuse treatments. Because they offer a wider range of services, the premiums also increase.

According to the New Jersey Association of State Colleges and Universities, students at nine schools in the state saw the cost of their policies triple, Paul Shelly, a spokesman for the organization told North Jersey.com.

It’s been a similar story across most of the country.

According to a 2008 study by the Government Accountability Office, about 6,000 students or about 7 percent of the total number of 18-to-23-year-olds in college, bought their own insurance, usually through plans arranged with the school.

The same study found that 60 percent of schools’ plans had coverage of $50,000 or less for specific conditions, and almost all the rest had some sort of payout caps that they will have to do away with by 2014.

In the past, students at Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kan., were offered a one-year plan that cost students $445, with payouts capping at $10,000. For the 2012-2013 academic year, the payout cap was increased to $100,000 per the new health care overhaul, which meant students at Bethany would have to shell out more than $2,000 for coverage. It apparently was too much in the end.

Bob Schmoll, Bethany’s vice president for finance, told The Wall Street Journal, the school “decided not to offer coverage for our students next year” given the proposed increase in premium. Schmoll says the school could have kept the limited-coverage plan but that it would have financially not been feasible.

Administrators at Lenoir-Rhyne University in North Carolina, Cornell College in Iowa and the University of Puget Sound in Washington also told students they would be dropping school-sponsored coverage. The three schools say student premiums would have gone up 10-fold.

De Blasio - Bringing Socialism to New York

A RED campaign sign - Truth in advertising.

“People were shocked and speechless”

• New York City Commie Mayor-elect tells businessmen he not a free-marketeer.  That he believes in the heavy hand of government.
• Will New York's new Democrat mayor follow the policies of Lenin, Stalin or Castro?  Inquiring minds want to know.

The People's Republic of New York - Welcome to the new Democrat Party's "big tent" where everyone from Marx to Lenin is represented.  Suddenly Mayors Michael Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani look like drooling right-wing loons.


(New York Post)  Business leaders in the city are scratching their heads over recent remarks by Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio.

Describing how he plans to govern once he takes office next year, the mayor-elect declared flatly that he doesn’t believe in the free-market system.

At least Comrade Bill was being honest.

“Everything you heard about me is true. . . I am not a free-marketeer. . . I believe in the heavy hand of government,” de Blasio stated matter-of-factly during an hour-long presentation to some of the city’s biggest real-estate developers reports Charles Gasparino in the New York Post.

The meeting occurred several weeks before the election with de Blasio way ahead in the polls and New York’s business elite hoping and praying he wasn’t as much of a leftist as he said he was on the campaign trail.

Now that de Blasio’s been elected mayor with a resounding 73 percent of the vote, his comments have become a hot topic for business people trying to digest what life will be like with Comrade Bill in charge.

Attendees of the gathering with de Blasio included Jared Kushner of Kushner Properties, Stephen Green of SL Green Realty, Douglas Durst of the Durst Organization and Jeff Blau, chief executive of the Related Companies. Scott Rechler of RXR Realty, who hosted the event at his offices, served as moderator (that is, to the extent it’s possible to moderate de Blasio).

“It was startling to hear someone in this day and age boldly proclaim he’s not a ‘free marketeer,’ ” said one person in ­attendance.

“Scary” was how another person with direct knowledge of the event described his statements. “People were shocked and speechless,” said another person who was there.

This is a guy who honeymooned in Cuba, gave aid and comfort to the communist Sandinista rebels and never apologized for his radical past. In fact, he’s built upon it, advocating a distinctly far-left agenda — further left, in fact, than any mayor since David Dinkins. That includes everything from bashing the police to demanding higher taxes and much bigger government, which he believes will alleviate a fictional narrative: that one of the most generous cities in the world to poor people is really a Dickensian hell hole.

Thanks to http://www.longislandfirearms.com/forum/

 

Socialist Democrats on a Job Killing Rampage - A 95% Drop in Jobs

Porn Star Sunny Leone

Democrats Drive Porn Jobs Out of L.A.

• Liberals work overtime to crush job creation and then they wonder why there is not enough tax money to pay for government.

 

The number of permits pulled to make porn films in Democrat controlled Los Angeles County has declined an estimated 95 percent — from about 480 issued in 2012 to only 24 through the first nine months of this year — since a law requiring adult film actors to use condoms took effect, officials said Friday.

Film LA, a private nonprofit that issues permits for filming in Los Angeles County, cautioned that its 2012 figures were just an estimate because it did not specifically track porn films until the condom requirement took effect in March 2012 reports the Associated Press.


Now that it does, the organization said only 24 permits were issued this year as of mid-September.
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The adult film industry trade group, the Free Speech Coalition, said those numbers show the law adopted by voters is costing the county hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the porn industry employs about 10,000 people as actors or in technical supporting jobs.

Larry Flint of Hustler said, "We won't be doing anything in Los Angeles."  He is already making plans to shift production to Mexico, Arizona or Hawaii.

The group's executive director, Diane Duke, said a typical porn film permit costs about $1,000, meaning the county lost about $456,000.

"And if you think about the associated vendors and jobs that have gone elsewhere, I think that speaks volumes about what this is costing," she said.

Duke said some filmmakers went to neighboring counties, while others headed out of state.
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Some smaller producers could also be forgoing permits to keep from drawing attention to themselves.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/11/15/2932990/after-condom-law-la-county-porn.html#storylink=cpy

,
States around California are stealing businesses, jobs
and tax income from the once Golden State.
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Also see our article:  Democrats shut down 10,000 more jobs

 

Porn Star Jessica Drake

Forced government condoms are unconstitutional.

Driving taxpayers out of Los Angeles
Jenna Jameson earns a million dollar paycheck in the porn industry.  Socialist Democrats have decided that having lots of taxpayers in the state is a bad thing.  Much better to drive jobs across the border into Nevada or Mexico.

Big Brother Sex Police
Fascist Democrats (helped by many Republicans) are thrusting unconstitutional Police State powers deep, deep into our most personal of freedoms  -  the right to have sex.
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If Big Brother can invade privately owned businesses and force free men and women to use condoms under the watchful eye of agents of the All-Powerful-State then our Liberty is doomed.  Once this Fascist intrusion into our freedom becomes the norm the State will expand their surveillance of private sex acts in the name of "health" and "the public good".

Coming Next: Race-Based Car Loans - Welcome to Socialism

A Socialist Wet-Dream Come True

• Leftist loons now want race based car loans out of "fairness". 
• We all know how well the race based Community Reinvestment Act worked in collapsing the housing market five years ago.  But never try to confuse a Socialist with facts.

(From Moonbattery)  America under liberal rule is a racist tyranny. Think that is hyperbole? Then talk to a car dealer about this from the Wall Street Journal:

[T]he new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau [CFPB] is ginning up a campaign to use “disparate impact” analysis to charge racism in auto lending. That’s the theory that looks at statistics to prove bias without evidence of specific discriminatory intent. Never mind the financial or other circumstances of the borrowers beyond their race.

That is, car dealers must provide a proportionately equivalent number of car loans, at the same interest rate, to all racial groups, regardless of whether members of these groups are equally likely to repay the loan. Essentially, if Customer X has money in the bank and has never missed a day of work in his life, and Customer Y is living on welfare and just got out of jail, they must be regarded as equal credit risks if Customer Y is lucky enough to be black.

Obviously, there are plenty of blacks who are good credit risks. Equally obviously, there are many who are not. You would have to spend your entire life sealed in a windowless room with no access to the outside world except a TV tuned to PBS not to know that there are cultural differences that make blacks as a group significantly less likely to repay their loans than whites reports Moonbattery.

To achieve the liberal conception of equality, these differences must be papered over by forcing car dealers to make bad loans, effectively subsidizing cars for those who don’t pay their bills at the expense those of us who do pay our bills, because we will end up having to pay more to make up the loss.

If all of this sounds familiar, you could be thinking of the Community Reinvestment Act, spawned by Carter but doubled down on by Clinton and Obama, by which the federal government forced banks to make mortgage loans on a racial basis lest they be accused of “redlining.” This was a primary cause of the 2008 economic crash.

Patrice Ficklin, head of the bureau’s Office of Fair Lending and Equal Opportunity, revealed that “we have found substantial and statistically significant disparities between the interest rates paid by African American, Hispanic, and Asian car buyers when compared to the interest rates paid by white car buyers with similar credit scores and other factors.

Really. Can we see some evidence of this?

No, we cannot.

[The CFPB] hasn’t published its research in detail and has instead proceeded to mount a political pressure campaign to remove dealer discretion in setting loan terms. “Guidance” from the agency sent to banks in March included advice on how to avoid running afoul of anti-discrimination laws in auto lending. 

Message received. The banks that provide financing for the dealers began warning dealers to improve compliance or risk having flat fees imposed. In other words, the dealers’ profits on loans would be capped.

Knuckle under to intimidation and regard black skin as the ultimate qualification for a loan, or your profits will be capped. I didn’t think I would live to see things done this way in America.

Democrats to mandate porn stars wear goggles

Porn Stars Jessica Drake (right) and James Deen appear in a protest of
'condoms only' measure that passed in California, but the pair could soon be
complaining about the required use of goggles.

 

What the Fuck!

I think we just found a new use for Google Glasses.

The People's Republic of California  -  The insanity of Big Brother Liberalism knows no bounds.

First it was mandatory condoms in the California Porn industry. Now lawmakers want to make porn stars don more gear to keep them safe from infection from bodily fluids.

If an updated draft of Bill AB 640 goes into effect eye protection would be required during filming sex scenes, according to the proposed legislation.

Sexy lab technicians and plastic-coated germaphobes may soon be the hot new ticket in porn. And not by kinky viewers' choice.

The latest version of a California worker safety bill may require adult film actors to wear items like protective goggles while filming sex scenes reports the New York Daily News.

An updated draft of Bill AB 640 would not only prohibit state-wide performers from ejaculating onto the genitals, mouth or eyes, but require employers to provide "barrier protection" eyewear as well.

Bill AB 640 is currently awaiting review in the senate. If approved it would require "personal protective equipment" to "prevent contact of an employee's eye; skin, mucous membranes, or genitals with the blood or OPIM-STI of another."

The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health defines OPIM-STI as any bodily fluids, including fecal matter and those from wounds or sores.

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This latest proposal comes exactly one year after condoms were mandated during filming of vaginal and anal sex scenes in Los Angeles County to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

Demolition Man - Edgar Friendly Speech

Freedom from fucking government - what a concept.

 

 

 

Democrat Party Condom Police
Democrat run Los Angeles is sending condom inspectors to the sets of porn movie shoots to make sure the condoms are properly installed and snug with no leakage. Moron Democrats want to get a firm grip on both our wallets and our deployed condoms.

 

Wage and price controls pushed by Socialist SEIU in ballot initiatives

The SEIU raises the union flag over the state capital in Sacramento.

Socialist Wage and Price Controls

If you listen carefully you can hear the ghost of Vladimir Lenin speaking at the SEIU convention. 

The People's Republic of California  -  The leftist SEIU representing health care workers filed two ballot initiatives in the People's Republic that seek to place wage and price controls on hospitals in the state.

The Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West delivered the measures to the Attorney General's Office on Friday. The union is aiming to qualify them for the November 2014 ballot.

The Fair Healthcare Pricing Act would forbid hospitals from charging more than 25 percent above the cost of patient care while the Charitable Hospital Executive Compensation Act would make it illegal for nonprofit hospital executives to receive more than $450,000 in annual compensation.

Proponents estimate the measures would reduce prices by more than $2.5 billion a year reports the Fresno Bee.

Dave Regan, president of the 150,000-member SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, said the union endeavors to engage the hospital industry in a public debate about rising costs.

"Their unwillingness to date to really take seriously the call to reform the increasing cost and frankly uneven quality around the state has led us here today," Regan told reporters in Sacramento. "We fundamentally believe that these measures are not only good policy but they represent the desires and the aspirations of a huge majority of Californians."

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/11/08/3597332/capitol-alert-healthcare-union.html#storylink=cpy

Jan Emerson-Shea, a spokesman for the California Hospital Association, said the organization was disappointed the union filed the initiatives.

"They put a cloud over the accomplishments that have been mutually beneficial to health care workers, hospitals and patients," Emerson-Shea said.

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/11/08/3597332/capitol-alert-healthcare-union.html#storylink=cpy

"What CHA is not able to do is produce additional union members for SEIU-UHW," she said. "CHA is not an agent for hospitals in labor matters."

Communists and SEIU Members march together

Communists groups and Public Sector Union (SEIU) members march together chanting, "Legalization or Revolution" at Los Angeles May Day protest.

Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/11/08/3597332/capitol-alert-healthcare-union.html#storylink=cpy

Unions and Communists March Side By Side at May Day Rally - Los Angeles
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See more at www.ringospictures.com

At last, truth in advertising!

Insanity - Having a "mean" looking Arab team mascot is racist

Idiot Alert!

• The Race Card!  A California high school is called racist for having a "mean" looking Arab as their sports mascot. 
• I guess depicting pride, strength and power in schools is old fashioned.  Much better for the students to be taught that weakness and cowering in fear of political corrected lawsuits is the way to live your life.

The pretend "civil rights" group, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, accused a Coachella Valley High School of stereotyping and demanded a name change.

The group also is seeking a change of the school mascot.

 

The group said it was "shocked to learn that the Arab" is the official mascot of the high school in Thermal.

 

 

"Continued use of the 'Arab' mascot perpetuates demeaning stereotypes of Arabs and Arab Americans," it said. "Coachella Valley High School's gross stereotyping cannot be tolerated," reports CNN News.

 

The school has a mascot that "depicts a man with a large nose, heavy beard, and wearing" a traditional head covering, the group said.

 

During halftime, "a female dressed as belly dancer entertains the mascot by dancing for him," it added.

 

But for the school, the mascot and cheerleaders shouting "Let's go, Arabs, let's go" are nothing new. The mascot dates back to the 1930s.

The Arab mascot recognizes the influences of the Middle East in the area's date farming, said Rich Ramirez, president of the Coachella Valley High School Alumni Association and a 1959 graduate of the high school.

 

In the early 1900s, the U.S. Department of Agriculture acquired date shoots from Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries and used them to establish date orchards in the valley's desert climate, Ramirez said.

 

Some of the valley's Arab-Americans -- largely of Lebanese background -- were involved in date farming, but they mostly ran men's apparel stores and groceries, Ramirez said.

 

Fucked no matter what you do.
Even when you try to honor a group the insane liberal fringe so-called "civil rights" groups crap on you and call you an evil racist.
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Middle Eastern influences are reflected in community names of Mecca, Oasis and Arabia. The city of Coachella has street names of Damascus and Baghdad, and the valley's largest city, Indio, has a street named Deglet Noor, a date variety.

 

 

 

By 1921, the valley held its first date festival in Indio, and people who dressed in Arabian style were admitted free to the festival, he said. The Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival now attracts 300,000 people over 10 days every February, said Ramirez, a former board member of the Coachella Valley History Museum.

Middle Eastern influences are also reflected in community names of Mecca, Oasis and Arabia. The city of Coachella has street names of Damascus and Baghdad, and the valley's largest city, Indio, has a street named Deglet Noor, a date variety, Ramirez said.

 

By 1931, the high school adopted the mascot name of Arabs, replacing the informal names of "date pickers" or "farmers" inspired by the area's industry. It was a common way of nicknaming communities then, much like the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers, Ramirez said.

 

"We're proud of Arab tradition and Arab culture," Ramirez said.

 

The high school band and drill team dresses in Arab style, and a girl in a genie costume dances during football halftimes, Ramirez said.

Honoring Arab Culture & Food
Left: Indio Scenic Guide Map, circa 1975. Middle: Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival Premium List, 1953. Right: Riverside County Fair and National Date Festival Pamphlet, 1950. | Courtesy of the California History Room, California State Library, Sacramento, California.

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See more at KCET.org - Coachella Valley.



"Arab Marching Band" from the Coachella Valley
Union High School Yearbook, 1953.