Nick Kasoff responds

Nick Kasoff commented this morning on my July 29 post “Another race hoax exposed?” He denies any involvement with the Yacub 7 Ali/Ghetto Bragging Rights websites.

Mr. Kasoff has asked me to publish his response as prominently as my original post. And I am happy to do so. Here it is:

NICK KASOFF: Hi ... I’m Nick Kasoff, the webmaster of The Thug Report. Thanks for the nice write up. And kudos for your excellent research on my other activities. However, there are a few things that need correction here:

1. I am not, and have never been, affiliated with any of the websites you name here, nor do I contribute to them in any way.

2. It’s not hard to see that I have nothing to do with these sites - I do not, and have never, done anything anonymously on the internet. My domains are registered in my own name, and my blog posts are also done with my real name. Heck, I’m even listed in the phone book. Why would I do a bunch of anonymous blogs, then expose myself to heat by putting my name on The Thug Report? Anonymous domain registration is only twenty bucks a year, people ...

3. While we appreciate anyone who links to our site, that does not imply that we endorse their views. We receive traffic from all sorts of sites, from white supremacist to hip hop.

While you have obviously concluded the contrary, I actually like black people. I live in a racially diverse area, not because I can’t afford one of those all white enclaves in the ‘burbs, but because I prefer the urban environment. I find that the vast majority of black people are friendly, hard working, and just generally decent folks.

If you read the “About the Thug Report” page on the site, you’ll see my motive for doing this is NOT to defame black people, but to help, in my small way, to drive us toward a solution to urban crime. While I don’t have the solution, I feel that identifying the problem is the first step to finding it.

Our cities and inner ring suburbs are America’s future. They are the only place you can live without spending huge amounts of time and money driving. They are racially and economically diverse, have a housing stock of quality that today’s builder’s can’t match, and a sense of community that the gated neighborhoods of suburbia can never create. I am outraged that a tiny group of lawless people have succeeded in making large swaths of urban America uninhabitable. The Thug Report is my contribution toward reversing that trend.

I understand that many of you may disagree with the tactic. But at least now, you understand the motive is as far from racial animus as one can get.

Nick Kasoff
The Thug Report

August 1, 2008 7:26 AM

Another race hoax exposed?

Meet Nick Kasoff of Ferguson, Mo. (a suburb of St. Louis). He is a former radio talk show host and a home-computer consultant. He owns rental properties.

Mr. Kasoff is also politically active. He was a delegate to the Missouri Republican convention in May.

Kasoff supported Ron Paul, but now he’s backing John McCain. “At this point, I will do whatever I can to prevent socialist Barak Obama from being elected as President,” he wrote in a recent online comment.

Nick Kasoff spends a lot of time on the Internet. In January 2007, he launched a website called the Thug Report – a Drudge-style links list devoted to “urban crime news.”

Almost all of the criminals Mr. Kasoff showcases are black. And he uses ghetto dialect in some of his headlines. Such as:

“Cali bangaz recruit kids”

“Chicago killaz get teen girl”

“St. Louis shoota hits 1”

“Texas rappa gets 30 in slaying”

Occasionally, Kasoff will mock the names of black suspects by posting a snarky caption along with their mug shots. Example: “My name Santwoine. My name Raevon.”

I have no problem with any of that. There is a shitload of black violent crime in America. If Nick Kasoff wants to focus on that, he has a right to.

And if somebody else wants to launch a website devoted to white criminals or Hispanic criminals, that is their right.

At least Kasoff isn’t hiding his identity. He has posted comments on message boards as “Nick Kasoff – The Thug Report.”

Alas, I am convinced that Nick Kasoff is perpetrating much darker mischief.

In May 2007, I first blogged about an anonymous troublemaker masquerading as various members of a supposed black racist cult led by “Prophet Yacub 7 Ali.”

These so-called “Negro Sun Worshippers” – under numerous pseudonyms on numerous blogs – claimed the ability to inflict skin cancers on white people with just a look.

An affiliated hoax was the “Sexiest & Hardest Ghetto Black Male Felon Bragging Rights Competition,” whereby the hoaxer pretends to celebrate high-profile murders of white people by black criminals.

The hoaxer spread vicious lies about white female victims such as Channon Christian... suggesting that Ms. Christian wanted to be tortured and killed by blacks as a kinky sex thing.

At least one gullible online “journalist” – Nicholas Stix – wrote about the “Ghetto Bragging Rights” phenomenon as if it represented actual “black supremacists.”

Whereas I speculated that it was the creation of one race-baiting troll. And now I have a prime suspect: Nick Kasoff.

The “Ghetto Bragging Rights”/Yacub 7 Ali masquerade continues... on a series of anonymous WordPress blogs:

Ghetto Bragging Rights

Underprivileged Journalism

Underprivileged American Features

Underprivileged Cartoons

Digital Monkeys

God Damn (white) America

Here is my circumstantial evidence that Nick Kasoff is behind all of it:

1. The Ghetto Bragging Rights and Underprivileged Journalism blogs feature links to the Thug Report site.

2. Black mug shots featured on Kasoff’s Thug Report also turn up on the anonymous hoax sites... like this one of rapper DMX:


3. The first wave of Yacub 7 Ali/Ghetto Bragging Rights sites appeared in February 2007... one month after Kasoff registered the Thug Report domain name.

4. Kasoff’s desire to “do whatever I can to prevent socialist Barak Obama from being elected” would explain the latest wrinkle in the Yacub 7 Ali mythology... something called the “God Damn America Movement.”

(That refers, of course, to Rev. Jeremiah Wright.)

Kasoff’s Thug Report links to a “G*d d@mn America blog” (underprivilegedjournalism. wordpress.com).

5. Who would be motivated to carry on such an elaborate deception as this Yacub 7 Ali/Ghetto Bragging Rights business – for no apparent purpose – over 18 months?

Someone obsessed with black crime.

Check out the Thug Report for yourself and see if that shoe doesn’t fit Mr. Kasoff.

I think I found a good phrase for this type of shenanigans last month, when I busted another white guy pretending to be a black radical online: Racist political witchcraft.

Evidently Nick Kasoff has never heard of “karma.” You can’t put out bad vibes on the intertubes without it bouncing back on you eventually.

UPDATE (08/01/08): Nick Kasoff’s response to this post is here.