Scroll down to read this post.

 

Readers!

 

The time has come for my annual short Thanksgiving/Christmas fund drive for Behind The Black. I must do this every year in order to make sure I have earned enough money to pay my bills.

 

For this two-week campaign, I am offering a special deal to encourage donations. Donations of $200 will get a free autographed copy of the new paperback edition of Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, while donations of $250 will get a free autographed copy of the new hardback edition. If you desire a copy, make sure you provide me your address with your donation.

 

As I noted in July, the support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.

 

In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.

 

Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.

 

Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:

 

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:

 

4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
 
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652

 

You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.


Pushback: Judge rules again that awarding federal grants based on race is illegal

Modern segregation
Modern Democratic Party segregation

The only race or ethnic options offered by MBDA's Orlando office
The only race or ethnic options offered by
MBDA’s Orlando office

“Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!” On March 5, 2024, federal judge Mark Pittman for the Northern District of Texas reiterated an earlier decision from June 2023 and once again ruled that the race-based awards issued by the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) violate numerous civil rights laws as well as the Constitution and are illegal.

Pittman then issued a permanent injunction that barred this federal agency from awarding any more benefits based on race. You can read his new ruling here [pdf].

Pittman had made an almost identical ruling in this case last year. At the time I noted that it appeared that at least one MBDA office in New Mexico was ignoring the ruling and continuing to give awards based on race. The graphic to the right, included in the judge’s ruling last week, shows a typical MBDA application form at the time. It literaly makes it impossible for a white person who is not Jewish or Hispanic from even applying.

One year later the New Mexico has changed the wording of its webpage to eliminate any mention of racial requirements. The application form [pdf] used by that office and others now includes an extra category, “Other (white),” so clearly whites can now apply.

I guarantee whites still won’t win any contracts, despite this ruling. As I predicted then,

All MBDA’s officers have to do is add a “White” category to its applications, and then routinely deny any grants to any white who applies. Without access to the ethnic breakdown of their grants, there will be no way to find out that they are continuing to discriminate.

Though Pittman’s ruling specifically bars the agency from using race as a criteria for making awards, forbidding if from using racial and ethnic classifications or “otherwise considering or using an applicant’s race or ethnicity in determining whether they can receive Business Center programming,” until someone forces MBDA from even asking this race question, the discrimination will continue.

The head of MBDA, Eric Morrissette, actually confirmed this fact immediately after Pittman’s ruling, issuing a statement disagreeing with the court and stating that the agency will “continue to assist businesses owned by socially or economically disadvantaged individuals.” Morrissette couched his words to make it sound like he would comply, but also made it clear he fully intended to find a way to get around the ruling so as to continue to treat some races better than others.

Expect additional lawsuits should MBDA continue to use these classifications on its applications forms. Expect those lawsuits however to have difficulty, as it will now be much harder to prove that MBDA is discriminating.

The only real way MBDA’s discriminatory policy will change will be when Democrats no longer control the executive branch, and a new administration takes power willing to fire people and clean house. Whether Donald Trump will be willing to do this remains unknown. He now says he intends to do it, but he had four years to do it before, and failed to take action. Whether he has the courage and will power to do it now, should he win, remains unknown.

In fact, it is unclear whether anyone today has the capability or force of personality to really change Washington. The swamp is very large, very powerful, and very protective of its turf. As we have seen with Trump, it will do everything it can to destroy anyone it sees as a threat.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

14 comments

  • Surly

    1. “One year later the New Mexico office has changed the wording of its webpage to eliminate any mention of racial requirements.”

    2. “…forbidding it from using racial and ethnic classifications…”

  • Chris

    I, and most of you qualify for Native American – We were born here. We are owed ALL the rights of Native Americans

  • Andi

    Hasidic Jew is a race?

  • wayne

    I’ll drop this in here…

    Joe Rogan Experience 2119
    James Lindsay
    [March 14, 2024]
    https://youtu.be/8IlRNjBQm5Y
    (3:01:43)

  • R C Dean

    “race-based awards issued by the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA)”

    It’s literally in the name of the agency. This won’t stop until that agency is closed. Not “reformed” or repopulated with different bureaucrats. Closed permanently.

  • Edward

    Chris,
    You noted: “I, and most of you qualify for Native American – We were born here. We are owed ALL the rights of Native Americans

    I note classifications for both American Indian and Native American ethnicities on the applications form. This indicates to me that this latter category is the one most Americans are intended to check. The other classifications are obviously for foreigners and naturalized citizens.

  • Max

    Robert speculated;
    “Whether Donald Trump will be willing to do this remains unknown. He now says he intends to do it, but he had four years to do it before, and failed to take action.“

    Donald was a lifelong New York democrat.
    Besides real estate and golf courses, his passion was entertainment from wrestling, pageant shows, and gambling casinos. He found his niche “acting” presidential/businessman in “the apprentice” for 14 years for very liberal NBC. He made a lot of money there.
    In other words he was an actor, he pretended to be who he needed to be to get elected just like the president of Ukraine.
    It worked.
    He trusted all the wrong people and not a single one that was in his cabinet, not even the Vice President, stands by his side today.
    His children do… And most of them are still Democrats… He could never fire them. and he just recently backed a politician who claims to be a never Trumper. (similar to mitt Romney… The third senator from Massachusetts) Whom he also backed.
    Operation warp speed is unforgivable. To take a bio weapon and mass produce it in the pharmacies and force the world to take it without testing it is truly one of the most diabolical things ever perpetrated on the human race.

    Everything he did that was good, was reversed with executive orders within a few days of Biden getting into office. Canceling trumps presidency entirely.
    Should he win again, he will be boxed in and neutered, Congress will remove is executive order privilege and cancel/impeach him again.

    Unfortunately, he is still our best hope.
    I can’t think of anything more entertaining, is if he makes Robert Kennedy his running mate. A lawyer with a back bone, whom has fought and won against the establishment and is no longer wedded to liberal ideas.

  • Chris

    Edward
    My comment is for several reasons:

    The normal “classifications” of human beings most often are created to isolate and remove the white American male from being included in anything other than disparagement.
    I note your observation of the two categories but note that this most often not the case..

    Using the term “Native American” attempts to specifically remove our citizenship.

    Mostly, it is part of a general intentional misuse of words that is often blindly accepted by most, and frustratingly by even conservatives or libertarians. Using the incorrect word skews the argument before any point is attempted to be made. See gay vs homosexual and gender vs sex….etc
    Once one uses these terms, an unconscious acceptance of an underlying argument is accepted.
    I refuse that. I encourage others to do so as well so that the root argument is exposed.

    In the case that a form offers the option of “Native American” I suggest you check it – you are one.

  • Edward

    Chris,
    You wrote: “The normal “classifications” of human beings most often are created to isolate and remove the white American male from being included in anything other than disparagement.

    You must be interpreting DIE all wrong. Isolating and removing anyone from being included is the exact opposite of the “I” Inclusion part of DIE. Without including everyone, how can there be the “D” Diversity? And there definitely cannot be “E” Equity!

    Your interpretation of these things would mean that DIE departments and the DIE movement as a whole are hypocritical, evil, evil things to behold, intentionally doing the exact opposite of their stated intentions. It would make them racists, working in the opposite direction of the racism that they claim America to be, making America the very racist place that they claim it is. They would be evil incarnate. That would make DIE mean: “Diablos Insensitive to Everyone.”

    What kind of people would do that?

  • Chris

    Edward you bring me to another thing I observe so often in todays society, government and “movements” – evil. It’s there in plain view and I often call it by its heart – evil. Problem is, not enough of those that here the word evil will realize that it is not a harsh epithet or mudslinging it is simply recognition.

  • Chris

    “Here” should be “hear”

  • Edward

    America is the Gold Standard for multiculturalism, not racism:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLXwtS68C2M (1 minute, Andrew Klavan)

  • Chris

    Edward
    I watched the clip and they are correct:-America is the gold standard for a melting pot. – we don’t need celebrities to tell us that or otherwise.

    I still see the evil of those who want to classify and separate us into groups according to myriad things (race, sex, sexual preference, economic status, politics…etc)

    The evil ones do not want a single citizenry that is not preoccupied with looking at themselves and other groups. That could result in the citizenry realizing its power

  • Black JEM

    Actually, a white person need only file suit claiming a violation of disparate impact coming from the Griggs vs Duke Power case. It will force discovery of the breakdown on who got the awards, which when determined discriminates against white applicants gets the whole practice thrown out.

    DEI in all its forms is becoming surrounded. It cannot survive legally, and formal Affirmative Action Plans are next to be ruled in violation of national anti-discrimination laws.

    Keep pushing.

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

No registration is required. I welcome all opinions, even those that strongly criticize my commentary.

 

However, name-calling and obscenities will not be tolerated. First time offenders who are new to the site will be warned. Second time offenders or first time offenders who have been here awhile will be suspended for a week. After that, I will ban you. Period.

 

Note also that first time commenters as well as any comment with more than one link will be placed in moderation for my approval. Be patient, I will get to it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *