tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63097035947479479332024-03-15T21:10:09.942-04:00Commentary by David A. LoveDALhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04202456579844317543noreply@blogger.comBlogger392125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6309703594747947933.post-66719328819699962402016-03-08T16:59:00.001-05:002016-03-08T17:00:49.170-05:00David on Al Jazeera's Inside Story: Are the Oscars too white? <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />DALhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04202456579844317543noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6309703594747947933.post-28091916394268974782016-01-19T11:04:00.000-05:002016-01-19T11:56:39.309-05:00David on Al Jazeera discussing the lack of diversity at the Oscars<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />DALhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04202456579844317543noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6309703594747947933.post-75309728215486208342016-01-19T10:59:00.000-05:002016-01-19T10:59:03.974-05:00David on Radio Times discussing White outrage<iframe width="100%" height="166" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/241789265&color=1e4f78"></iframe>DALhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04202456579844317543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6309703594747947933.post-91211488906288216212016-01-19T10:54:00.000-05:002016-01-19T10:56:37.139-05:00David on CNN discussing the Oregon militias and 'color coded' terrorism<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />DALhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04202456579844317543noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6309703594747947933.post-73233072059042463732015-07-03T15:01:00.000-04:002015-07-03T15:01:34.435-04:00Why Obama must make ending racial inequality the focus of his remaining time in office<b>(<a href="http://thegrio.com/2015/06/29/obama-racial-inequality-remaining-time/">theGrio</a>) </b> <a href="http://thegrio.com/tag/barack-obama/">President Obama</a> — or Reverend President — has captured America’s attention on racial inequality. He must make the issue his central theme for his remaining time in office.<br /><br />At the eulogy for Rev. Clementa Pinckney — the state senator who was among the nine killed by Dylann Roof at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C. — the president bore the weight of black folks on his shoulders when he articulated the history of slavery and the problem of racism we face in everyday life. His words were a call to action, as he seemed to realize that removing the Confederate flag from the South Carolina statehouse — without addressing the systemic racism that remains once the flag is gone — risked becoming a squandered opportunity.<br /><a name='more'></a><br />“By taking down that flag, we express God’s grace,” Obama said to resounding applause. “But I don’t think God wants us to stop there. For too long, we’ve been blind to the way past injustices continue to shape the present. Perhaps we see that now. Perhaps this tragedy causes us to ask some tough questions about how we can permit so many of our children to languish in poverty, or attend dilapidated schools, or grow up without prospects for a job or for a career,” he added.<br /><br />“Perhaps it causes us to examine what we’re doing to cause some of our children to hate. Perhaps it softens hearts towards those lost young men, tens and tens of thousands caught up in the criminal justice system — and leads us to make sure that that system is not infected with bias,” the president said.<br /><br />“Maybe we now realize the way racial bias can infect us even when we don’t realize it, so that we’re guarding against not just racial slurs, but we’re also guarding against the subtle impulse to call Johnny back for a job interview but not Jamal. So that we search our hearts when we consider laws to make it harder for some of our fellow citizens to vote,” Obama added.<br /><br />There are a number of reasons why President Obama should focus on racial inequality during his final year-and-a-half in the White House.<br /><br />First, the issue is urgent and on the front burner. The president has addressed racism in various ways with varying degrees of success. As a senator and presidential candidate, Obama discussed the issue of racism within the context of “controversial” sermons made by his then-pastor and mentor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Some chose to dismiss Wright’s comments as “hate speech” without addressing the content of what the right reverend actually said. Ultimately, some in the media judged candidate Obama’s “race speech” based on how effectively he threw his pastor under the bus to gain white approval rather than the real pain of racism reflected in Wright’s words of indictment against America. Meanwhile, the presidential <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/politics/gallery/073009_beer_summit_obama/">“beer summit”</a> that arose out of the racial profiling of <a href="http://thegrio.com/2012/07/26/black-women-making-their-mark-in-space-and-science-slideshow/#s:jeanette_j">Harvard</a> Professor Henry Louis Gates by police went from “teachable moment” to a bust.<br /><br />Although hindsight is 20-20, it appears that in light of recent events and a lingering, festering wound of race — of which the Confederate flag controversy and the Charleston massacre are only two examples — Rev. Wright was vindicated. And now is not the time for more conversations; now is the time to act.<br /><br /><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/08/22/3474542/justice-ginsburg-america-has-a-real-racial-problem/">Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg</a> noted that while the Supreme Court was once a world leader in combating racial discrimination, things have changed, with the assault on voting rights. And yet, the court has been more accepting of LGBTQ rights by striking down the <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=6241888197107641609&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr">Defense of Marriage Act</a> and granting marriage equality. But Ginsburg laments that while public acceptance of gay Americans has increased, there is no similar understanding on the basis of race. Neighborhoods remain racially separated.<br /><br />As black and gay American <a href="http://mic.com/articles/121420/Civil-Rights-Marriage-Equality">Darnell L. Moore</a> expressed so eloquently in Mic.com, even with the historic significance of marriage equality, “once-alive black bodies will be placed in the dirt.” Moore added, “whether I am legally married or not, the rainbow flag of LGBTQ equality will never shield my black body from a reckless police officer’s bullet.”<br /><br />Further, there is no guarantee that <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/hillary-clinton-countrys-struggle-race-far-over-n380556">Hilary Clinton</a> will handle the issue. Granted, the heir-apparent to the Obama coalition has spoken a great deal these days on the legacy of racial discrimination, most recently at a black church in Florissant, Missouri. Her comments on mass incarceration, police brutality, access to voting, education and other related matters are poignant and encouraging. However, no one really knows what Hillary or anyone would do as president, regardless of their campaign promises. After all, if she is elected, she will have her own agenda and priorities.<br /><br />Finally, and most importantly, there certainly is no reason to believe the Republicans will tackle this issue. Although many of the party’s high-profile faces have condemned the Confederate flag, there is no evidence that anything else has changed in the GOP when it comes to race. While circumstances forced them to loosen their grip on the rebel flag, they win elections through racial scapegoating. The Republicans remain a safe haven for white supremacists and gun worshipers, which is not helpful in a nation overcome by virulent systemic racial discrimination and the highest levels of firearm deaths and gun ownership in the world. Hate crimes remain a problem, and black people are killed at a rate <a href="http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/black-americans-are-killed-at-12-times-the-rate-of-people-in-other-developed-countries/">twelve times higher</a> than other developed nations.<br /><br />President Obama is unlikely to find any cooperation from the GOP on anything, especially where race is implicated. Until he leaves the White House, he should use his pen like there’s no tomorrow — because politically, there won’t be a tomorrow for him — drafting executive orders that tackle institutional racism.<br /><br />The Emanuel Nine massacre and the Confederate flag brought clarity to the nation on racism. The U.S. suffers from a widening racial wealth divide, educational apartheid and the world’s largest prison population due to the exploitation of people of color. Fifty years after the Voting Rights Act, there is a war on voting rights for black and brown people. And as Amnesty International noted, the nation <a href="http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2015/06/how-many-us-states-meet-global-police-use-force-standards">fails international standards</a> for the use of deadly force. The president still has the bully pulpit and can motivate the base to force change. The Obama who leaves office would remain the Obama people elected.DALhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04202456579844317543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6309703594747947933.post-91153815106705803282015-07-03T14:56:00.001-04:002015-07-03T15:07:53.629-04:00As black churches burn concern grows over the resurgence of America’s original terrorists<b>(<a href="http://thegrio.com/2015/07/01/black-churches-burn-racism-white-supremacy/">theGrio</a>)</b> The recent rash of black church burnings have many African-Americans wondering if this marks a resurgence of the nation’s original terrorists — white supremacists.<br />
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Following the June 17 massacre at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C. — in which a white supremacist and Confederate sympathizer gunned down nine black congregants attending a Bible study meeting — eight predominantly black churches have burned, including seven in the South.<br />
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The latest fire was at <a href="http://time.com/3942688/black-church-burning-mount-zion-ame-south-carolina/">Mount Zion AME Church</a> in Greeleyville, which is about 60 miles northwest of Charleston. Although authorities say the church fire does not appear to have been intentionally set, the church was <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/south-carolina-black-church-once-torched-kkk-burns-again-n384876">burned to the ground by the Ku Klux Klan</a> 20 years ago.<br />
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While these church burnings are still under investigation, some are believed to be the result of arson and hate crimes. But even if a few of these cases are not acts of terrorism and are accidental, one can only conclude that the timing of these fires creates an awfully peculiar and disturbing pattern.<br />
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The <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jul/01/south-carolina-black-church-fires-mount-zion-greeleyville">other church fires</a> in the past ten days include College Hill Seventh Day Adventist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, which caught fire on June 22. According to the fire department, the fire was an arson.<br />
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On June 23, God’s Power Church of Christ in Macon, Georgia, was set on fire, a case which investigators regard as arson.<br />
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Meanwhile, on June 24, the Briar Creek Road Baptist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, was completely destroyed in what authorities consider deliberate arson. Also on June 24, the burning of the Fruitland Presbyterian Church in Gibson County, Tennessee, may have been the result of lightning, though an investigation is underway.<br />
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The cause of the fire that destroyed College Heights Baptist Church in Elyria, Ohio, on June 25 has yet to be determined.<br />
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And the Glover Grove Baptist Church in Warrenville, South Carolina, was burned on June 26, to this date the result of undetermined causes. The Greater Miracle Apostolic Holiness Church in Tallahassee, Florida, burned to the ground last week, and the fire department believes it was caused by faulty electrical wiring.<br />
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Although the concept of attacking black churches is both terrifying and an outrage, black churches have been set ablaze by white supremacist terrorists for as long as there have been black churches.<br />
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Charleston’s Emauel AME, the oldest black church in the South, which was created as a safe haven for black folks seeking refuge from discrimination and oppression, was burned to the ground for its role in the Denmark Vesey slave rebellion in 1822. Vesey was a founder of Emanuel AME.<br />
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Since that time, the black church has been a target for domestic terrorists, bombers and arsonists due to its central role in black life and its a driving force in the black community. Traditionally, the black church has been on the front lines of movement organizing and the struggle for civil rights. One of the most well-known cases was the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 15, 1963 by the Klan, which killed four girls and became a turning point helping to clear the way for the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.<br />
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In the 1990s, an epidemic of black church burnings led to passage of the Church Arson Prevention Act of 1996, which President Clinton signed into law.<br />
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And today, with a black president, economic uncertainty, and white unease over the browning and blackening of America, white rightwing extremists want to take their country back. Hate groups, neo-Confederates, the Klan and neo-Nazis fan the flames of hate, and conservative politicians give a wink and a nod through their hateful words and racist policies that roll back civil rights and place people of color in danger.<br />
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Meanwhile, some people conclude the very concept of black church burnings are a hoax, just as they also dismiss racism as a thing of the past. But these fires are very real, designed to strike black people where it hurts and instill fear in our hearts and minds. Often, these acts of terrorism are not taken seriously when the perpetrators are white men. But if ISIS was burning churches in America, there would be no more fires. Now is the time to take white supremacy seriously.DALhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04202456579844317543noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6309703594747947933.post-12454482608501007762015-07-03T14:50:00.000-04:002015-07-03T14:58:51.913-04:00Reverend president? Obama, grace and legacy come together in Charleston<b>(<a href="http://thegrio.com/2015/06/27/obama-grace-charleston-legacy-presidency/">theGrio</a>)</b> Was the President’s eulogy at Rev. Clementa Pinckney’s homegoing service an example of a truly liberated Obama who is now nearing the end of his term? Or did his performance reflect the events unfolding in this country and Obama stepping up?<br />
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Ultimately, it was a little bit of both, not to mention a man who is certainly thinking about his place in the world and what his legacy will mean to the nation.<br />
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On <a href="http://thegrio.com/2015/06/26/obama-eulogy-charleston-pastor-clementa-pinckney/">Friday afternoon at the TD Arena in Charleston, South Carolina</a>, <a href="http://thegrio.com/tag/barack-obama/">President Obama</a> paid tribute to Rev. Pinckney, a state senator and one of nine black people gunned down by white supremacist Dylann Roof at Emanuel AME Church.<br />
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With victories for <a href="http://thegrio.com/2015/06/25/supreme-court-obamacare-upheld/">Obamacare</a>, the <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/06/25/417433460/in-fair-housing-act-case-supreme-court-backs-disparate-impact-claims">Fair Housing Act</a> and <a href="http://thegrio.com/2015/06/26/same-sex-marriage-legal-supreme-court/">marriage equality</a> in the U.S. Supreme Court, it was a tremendous week for the commander in chief. And yet, in the midst of tragedy and soul searching — forced to grapple with its centuries’ old curse of slavery and a virulent symbol of racial oppression in the form of the Confederate flag — South Carolina may have had its finest hour when President Obama honored the fallen Rev. Pinckney.<br />
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If you have not viewed the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/26/politics/obama-charleston-eulogy-pastor/">eulogy</a>, please do so, for it was a proud time to be black, and to be American. Never in recent history, or in any part of history for that matter, have we witnessed a president say what Barack Obama said that day.<br />
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“Reverend Pinckney once said, ‘Across the South, we have a deep appreciation of history — we haven’t always had a deep appreciation of each other’s history.’” Obama told the audience. “Clem understood that justice grows out of recognition of ourselves in each other. That my liberty depends on you being free, too. That history can’t be a sword to justify injustice, or a shield against progress, but must be a manual for how to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past,” Obama added.<br />
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But the president did far more. It was a eulogy for the ages, a sermon on the meaning of God’s grace and a political “speech” cutting to the chase on race and gun violence in what may very well be his finest oratory yet.<br />
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Aside from the obvious reason he was there, President Obama had a daunting task beyond speaking at this funeral. He has found himself at a rare moment in time in which so many of America’s evils and promises have bubbled up to the surface.<br />
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Obama gave a history lesson on the black church. “To the families of the fallen, the nation shares in your grief. Our pain cuts that much deeper because it happened in a church,” the president said. “The church is and always has been the center of African-American life — (applause) — a place to call our own in a too often hostile world, a sanctuary from so many hardships.”<br />
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Further, the president spoke of removing the Confederate flag, “a reminder of systemic oppression and racial subjugation” as a moral imperative. “Removing the flag from this state’s capitol would not be an act of political correctness; it would not be an insult to the valor of Confederate soldiers. It would simply be an acknowledgment that the cause for which they fought — the cause of slavery — was wrong — the imposition of Jim Crow after the Civil War, the resistance to civil rights for all people was wrong…. By taking down that flag, we express God’s grace.”<br />
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Gun violence was another topic President Obama discussed. “For too long, we’ve been blind to the unique mayhem that gun violence inflicts upon this nation. (Applause.) Sporadically, our eyes are open: When eight of our brothers and sisters are cut down in a church basement, 12 in a <a href="http://thegrio.com/2012/02/25/slideshows-films-that-made-the-worst-impact-on-african-americans/#s:worst-black-movies-soul-plane-cover-jpg">movie</a>theater, 26 in an elementary school. But I hope we also see the 30 precious lives cut short by gun violence in this country every single day; the countless more whose lives are forever changed.”<br />
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Finally, the president put to rest the notion that America needs more discussions on race. “None of us can or should expect a transformation in race relations overnight. Every time something like this happens, somebody says we have to have a conversation about race. We talk a lot about race. There’s no shortcut. And we don’t need more talk,” he said.<br />
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Perhaps the most stirring part of Obama’s eulogy was his rendition of the song “Amazing Grace.” Addressed by the AME clergy as “Reverend President,” Obama took America to church. And it was fitting that he was surrounded by the black church to articulate black suffering, comfort us and help us through.<br />
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With one and a half years left of the Obama presidency, <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/6/26/8849925/obama-obamacare-history-presidents">this past week represented a phenomenal intersection</a> of events — the almost universal repudiation of the Confederate flag following the Charleston massacre and a sudden clarity on issues of racial violence and white supremacy. While it is too early to tell, the aftermath of the Emanuel AME <a href="http://thegrio.com/2013/09/17/african-american-mass-shooters/">shooting</a> could represent a turning point in U.S. history, and Obama was prepared to show <a href="http://thegrio.com/2011/01/17/slideshow-the-top-25-most-influential-black-american-leaders-of-all-time/#s:malcolm-x-and-martin-luther-king-jpg-2">leadership</a> as the circumstances were thrust upon him. Extraordinary times give presidents the opportunity to step to the plate and prove themselves.<br />
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Meanwhile, we have witnessed in recent days an apparently free black man who is unencumbered by reelection concerns and cares little about his adversaries. Singing at the Pinckney eulogy, using the n-word and telling a <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/24/politics/obama-heckler-white-house-lgbt/">heckler at a White House event</a>, “You’re in my house!” are examples of a leader who now feels comfortable speaking truth and calling people out.<br />
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President Obama is a politician and effective communicator who knows good political theater and is using his bully pulpit.<br />
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Whether he is stepping up, liberated or both, this is the Obama people voted for and always wanted in the first place.DALhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04202456579844317543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6309703594747947933.post-25248702494834123762015-07-03T14:46:00.001-04:002015-07-03T14:46:21.948-04:00The danger with making the Confederate flag and Dylann Roof the face of racism<b>(<a href="http://thegrio.com/2015/06/22/the-danger-with-making-the-confederate-flag-and-dylann-roof-the-face-of-racism/">theGrio</a>)</b> The Confederate flag and Dylann Storm Roof are perhaps the most potent and virulent symbols of racial hatred these days, and understandably so. When Roof committed mass <a href="http://thegrio.com/2013/08/30/tamron-hall-talks-deadline-crime-and-opens-up-about-her-sisters-murder/">murder</a> by gunning down nine black parishioners at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 17, he did so in the spirit of the <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/20/dylann-roof-visited-slave-plantations-confederate-landmarks-before-massacre.html">Confederacy</a> he seems to love so much.<br /><br />However, as much as we are paying attention to this madman and a Rebel flag which defended slavery, segregation and lynching — and we should — let us not lose sight of the bigger picture. These are merely extreme symbols of racism. Ultimately, we must focus on systemic racism, the pervasive forms of racial oppression that plague our economy, the education system, law enforcement and the judicial system. And if we ignore this painful reality, then we are merely opting for symbolism rather than real change.<br /><a name='more'></a><br />Roof, who is the subject of a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/18/charleston-hate-crime-investigation_n_7611556.html">federal hate crime investigation</a>, is a domestic terrorist whose purported <a href="http://thegrio.com/2015/06/20/dylann-roofs-racist-manifesto-allegedly-uncovered-the-event-that-truly-awakened-me-was-the-trayvon-martin-case/">racist manifesto</a> reveals much about the killer’s pro-apartheid, neo-Confederate and neo-Nazi sentiments. And while he was apparently acting alone, he really was not alone. South Carolina is home to at least <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/south-carolina-is-home-to-at-least-19-known-hate-groups/">19 hate groups</a>, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, including two Ku Klux Klan chapters, four white nationalist groups, including the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), and six neo-Confederate organizations such as the League of the South. Roof was reportedly <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/dylann-roof-was-radicalized-by-the-website-of-a-group-that-has-been-associated-with-gop-politicians/">radicalized by the CCC</a>, a reincarnation of the Whites Citizens Councils of the 1950s and 1960s that is now associated with Republican politicians.<br /><br />Dylann Roof may have been radicalized, but a major political party in this country has been radicalized as well. Once the party of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, the GOP has become the new segregationist Dixiecrats for the twenty-first century. As Fox News and rightwing talk radio fan the flames of racial hatred, Republican politicians enact laws making it more difficult for black people to vote and easier for white supremacists to amass the firearms they need to kill black people — and acquit them when they kill black people. With the conservative movement directing their hatred towards people of color, pulling the levers of power and encouraging an <a href="http://www.salon.com/2015/04/17/ted_cruzs_frightening_gun_fanaticism_when_a_presidential_contender_encourages_armed_insurrection/">armed insurrection</a> against a black president through “Second Amendment” remedies, it is no wonder that the Dylan Roofs of the nation dare to start a race war as they do.<br /><br />Blaming a lone gunman or a Civil War flag for racism only clears society of wrongdoing. While many whites believe they are not racists because they don’t use racial epithets or gun down a black church, racism is not merely the acts of a handful of people who hate black folks. Institutional racism is a system of white skin privilege and white supremacy that benefits preferred members through specific policies and rigs the game against outsiders.<br /><br />Unjust laws determine that the public schools in black and Latino communities should be underfunded and fail those children or that banks will deny loans on the black side of town. With racist policies and practices, the police stop and search and arrest men of color, and the prosecutors and judges send these black and brown bodies to prison. And while some would <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/US/dylann-roof-hears-victims-families-speak-1st-court/story?id=31896001">forgive</a> Roof for his crimes, who do we forgive for the subprime mortgage crisis which preyed upon black homeowners and resulted in the <a href="http://www.peri.umass.edu/681/">largest loss of black wealth</a> in history? Who would we forgive for sending a black man to solitary confinement for forty years in a former slave plantation — if we chose to forgive —and who should accept responsibility? Who do we punish for high black unemployment, for black women earning <a href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/07/study_black_women_make_only_64_cents_to_every_dollar_white_men_earn.html">64 cents for every dollar</a> a white man earns? And who pays for the cradle to prison pipeline, or a war on <a href="http://thegrio.com/2012/04/20/slideshow-the-top-10-potheads-in-hip-hop/#s:bone-thug-jpg-2">drugs</a> that has amounted to a war on black America?<br /><br />Let’s all hope the flag gets removed forever and that Roof receives full and swift justice for violently ending nine beautiful lives. However, it will be at our nation’s peril if we confuse these two symptoms for our nations true disease — the cancer of systemic racism.<br /><br />As the Reverend Dr. William Barber of the North Carolina NAACP eloquently said, “The perpetrator was caught in Shelby, but the killer is still at large.”DALhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04202456579844317543noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6309703594747947933.post-85320219705040214842015-07-03T14:43:00.004-04:002015-07-03T14:43:58.022-04:00Here’s how Rachel Dolezal can redeem herself with black America<b>(<a href="http://thegrio.com/2015/06/14/can-rachel-dolezal-redeem-herself-as-an-ally/">theGrio</a>)</b> Rachel Dolezal had quite a week, perhaps unlike anyone you know, as her parents revealed that the African-American studies professor, #BlackLivesMatter activist and head of the Spokane branch of the NAACP, is not a black woman but white.<br /><br />Despite the scathing criticism and unforgiving <a href="http://thegrio.com/2015/06/13/rachel-dolezal-memes/">memes</a> this sister has faced, perhaps even well-deserved, all is not lost for Dolezal.<br /><br />Can she redeem herself as an ally, after all this backlash?<br /><a name='more'></a><br />Yes, she can, with the potential to have an even more effective civil rights career and a more meaningful impact on the lives of black people. However, some changes need to be made, and she will need to do three things:<br /><br />First, Dolezal must apologize publicly for deceiving those around her. Please believe that a spray tan and a perm do not a black woman make. Plus, concepts of passing and wearing blackface have a long, tortured history touching on sore spots in the black community.<br /><br />The issue never was that she is a white woman in the NAACP. That esteemed civil rights organization always embraced people of all races and ethnicities, and white folks are on the move in places such as North Carolina, where they have joined the NAACP and Rev. William Barber’s multiracial Moral Monday movement.<br /><br />Rather, people took issue with Rachel Dolezal for representing herself as something she is not and creating a fictional past for personal gain. Apparently, she may have <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/06/12/1392773/-Did-the-hate-crimes-reported-by-Rachel-Dolezal-really-happen">fabricated reports of hate crimes</a>against her. Blackness is not something that one can put on like a fashion accessory and then simply take off when you get tired and want to move on to something else. Black folks are in this for the long haul, but is she?<br /><br />Next, Rachel should give us her true biography and express how she fell in love with fighting for issues that affect our community. There is no question that Rachel Dolezal has fought on the frontlines of issues that are impacting African-Americans, arguably with more zeal and consistency than some black so-called leaders.<br /><br />But there is evidence that, arguably, her good intentions snowballed into a huge display of white privilege. Further, news that she gave lectures on “nappiness” and the brown paper bag test and told a student she <a href="http://thegrio.com/2015/06/13/rachel-dolezal-brother-dont-blow-my-cover/">did not look Hispanic enough</a> only made things worse.<br /><br />Now, Dolezal needs to demonstrate that she is a good ally. A good ally is someone who advocates for black people, but knows how to stay in her lane, versus someone who appropriates the very blackness she is supposedly supporting, runs with it and exploits it with reckless abandon.<br /><br />Unless there is something we do not know or her parents have not revealed – perhaps some hidden black ancestors that are not reflected in their daughter’s birth certificate — Rachel Dolezal was not born a person of African descent. But that does not mean she can’t be down, that she can’t associate or identify with blackness. The abolitionist John Brown was almost certainly a white man, and yet, as someone who led an armed insurrection and made his best effort to wipe out the institution of slavery, we are hard pressed to find anyone blacker. He was captured and hanged, but it was his commitment and realness that got the ball rolling and led to the Civil War.<br /><br />Better yet, Rachel Dolezal should take a lesson from the late <a href="http://thegrio.com/2013/08/14/thegrios-2013-fall-music-preview-slideshow/#s:gary-gershoff-getty-images">R&B</a> singer, producer and songwriter, Teena Marie — who was technically white but was functionally black. Once described by Radio One founder <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Music/12/26/teena.marie.dead/">Cathy Hughes</a> as “a black voice trapped in a white body,” Lady T had a loving relationship with the black community unlike any other white artist before or since.<br /><br />As <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2010/12/the-indomitable-blackness-of-teena-marie/68597/">Ta-Nehisi Coates</a> wrote in The Atlantic after her death in 2010, Teena Marie demonstrated that blackness is cultural and not biological. She once said “I’m a black artist with white skin. At the end of the day you have to sing what’s in your own soul.” To that end, she sang for black folks and of black folks, and never found crossover appeal. Whether it was “Square Biz,” “I Need Your Lovin’,” “Lovergirl,” “Ooh La La La” or “Fire and Desire” — her duet with Rick James — Teena Marie’s “whiteness” never really came into view. And in any case, more than a few black people actually believed she was black. Rachel Dolezal needs to show the black public she has a black soul — if she indeed does — and help us understand the process that led her down this path to embracing us.<br /><br />Finally, Dolezal can become a vocal advocate against racial bias in the media. After all, as a woman who has lived both black and white in this color-coded society, she is uniquely positioned to speak on white-skin privilege and anti-black racism. Remember that racism involves perceived differences, whether those differences are real or imagined. And since Rachel was perceived as a black woman, not to mention with a black husband and adopted siblings, certainly she has lived black experiences that provide the flipside to her inherited white card status.<br /><br />The media shape perceptions by perpetuating stereotypes of people of color and help create reality. Despite a black president and an increasingly browner America, Hollywood and the TV networks, controlled by middle-aged white men, still act like the good old days. Often, they pretend people of color are invisible, whitewashing our images, perpetuating the stereotypes about black criminality and inferiority, and <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/07/newsroom-diversity-a-casualty-of-journalisms-financial-crisis/277622/">keeping us out</a> <a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119912/black-female-journalist-quits-media-decries-newsroom-racism">of the newsrooms</a> and <a href="http://madamenoire.com/425397/women-people-color-new-media-startups-lack-diversity/">new media startups</a>. Meanwhile, outlets such as Fox News engage in blatant race baiting to boost ratings.<br /><br />This could be one of those teachable moments that will move the dialogue forward and help Rachel Dolezal in the process. There is no use in wasting too much time holding a grudge against a woman who has invested a great deal of effort advocating for the black community. Look around, and it is clear we can use all the help we can get right now. Black America is falling off a cliff into the ocean, tied to an anvil. Poverty is up and economic opportunity is down. When the police are not <a href="http://thegrio.com/2013/09/17/african-american-mass-shooters/">shooting</a> or strangling us, they are abusing our teenage daughters at pool parties with the camera rolling. And fifty years after the Voting Rights Act, we are still fighting for our voting rights, as the Republicans are acting like it’s 1955.<br /><br />So Rachel, we need backup, but now you know what you have to do.DALhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04202456579844317543noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6309703594747947933.post-14136848828415123802015-07-03T14:41:00.001-04:002015-07-03T14:41:43.641-04:00Is it fair to compare white NAACP leader Rachel Dolezal to Caitlyn Jenner?<b>(<a href="http://thegrio.com/2015/06/12/naacp-rachel-dolezal-caitlyn-jenner/">theGrio</a>) </b> <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/12/us/washington-spokane-naacp-rachel-dolezal-identity/">Rachel Dolezal</a>, 37, the head of the Spokane, Washington, branch of the NAACP, has represented herself as an African-American woman and has built a career as a vocal advocate and academic expert on issues related to race and police brutality. Moreover, she and her husband adopted four black children. However, her white parents <a href="http://thegrio.com/2015/06/12/naacp-rachel-dolezal-passing-black/">outed her</a> as a white woman, providing her birth certificate as proof.<br /><br />Dolezal has received support in social media, with some using the hashtag #Transracial to compare her to <a href="http://thegrio.com/2015/06/01/bruce-jenner-caitlyn-jenner-vanity-fair/">Caitlyn Jenner</a>, 65, the reality show star and Olympic athlete formerly known as Bruce Jenner who recently came out as a transgender woman and appeared in Vanity Fair. If Dolezal identifies as black, just as Jenner identifies as a woman, they argue, should she not be accepted in that way?<br /><a name='more'></a><br />“Who cares. If you can change your gender and identify as the opposite sex…why can’t someone identify as another race?” one Facebook commenter said.<br /><br />“If she is helping and fighting for our rights, I don’t see what the issue is?” added another poster on theGrio’s <a href="https://www.facebook.com/theGrio?fref=ts">Facebook page</a>. “She’s probably done and is doing more for black people than our ‘black leaders’ care to do.”<br /><br />There are those who disagree. For example, some voices argue that if Dolezal wanted to help, she should have done so with her own skin. One social media commenter said it was deceptive for Dolezal to represent herself as African-American: “I don’t take issue with her being a white NAACP leader. It’s the conscious decision and the audacity it took to be that dishonest. It’s pretty disturbing.”<br /><br />Another argued that “you should also consider that much of our struggle has been tied to the fact that many of us lack pride in being black. Rachel no doubt understood this, which makes her actions somewhat hypocritical. We are an accepting people. She could have fought just as vigorously for issues that affect black people without denying her own racial identity.<br /><br />Hip-hop artist <a href="https://twitter.com/lizzo/status/609219899165020160">Lizzo tweeted</a>: “My prob w/ <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Transracial?src=hash">#Transracial</a>: Black folk cant decide to be white when the cops raid their pool party. But a white woman can be NAACP president.”<br /><br /><a href="https://twitter.com/WESTCOASTSUMA/status/609266271247470594">@WESTCOASTSUMA</a> tweeted: “Being black isn’t a personality or a costume. Don’t erase our pride in our culture and race <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Transracial?src=hash">#Transracial</a>.”<br /><br />Meanwhile, <a href="https://twitter.com/briabriaaaa/status/609352722798747650">@briabriaaaa</a> said: “People making up struggles. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/transracial?src=hash">#transracial</a>? ‘I like your hair & your<a href="http://thegrio.com/2013/08/14/thegrios-2013-fall-music-preview-slideshow/#s:gary-gershoff-getty-images">music</a>, I’m supposed to be black.'”<br /><br />The diversity of opinions on the subject reflect the complexities of race and gender. After all, while there is a genetic or hereditary component to race — as well as shared experiences, culture and perhaps a legacy of oppression — race is a social construct, determined by people. For example, the U.S. once had a “one drop rule” that defined blackness as someone with the smallest degree of black ancestry. Moreover, it is likely that millions of white Americans have black ancestry and don’t even know it, with an estimated <a href="http://www.theroot.com/articles/history/2014/03/how_many_white_people_have_hidden_black_ancestry.html">4 percent of whites</a> having at least 1 percent African DNA. According to<a href="http://thegrio.com/2012/07/26/black-women-making-their-mark-in-space-and-science-slideshow/#s:jeanette_j">Harvard</a> Prof. Henry Louis Gates, based on the one drop rule, nearly 8 million whites would be classified as black. And in parts of the South, as many as <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/12/22/a-lot-of-southern-whites-are-a-little-bit-black/">12 percent of whites</a> are part black.<br /><br />Further, just as many blacks were able to “pass for white” and were absorbed by the white community, the black community always has adopted whites into their families and into the movement. However, the case of a white woman who felt the need to pass for black could send the message that one has to be black in order to fight for African-American issues, which is not the case. One example is <a href="http://www.timwise.org/">Tim Wise</a>, an anti-racism essayist and educator that Cornel West called “A vanilla brother in the tradition of (abolitionist) John Brown.” Another example is the <a href="http://www.ifyouonlynews.com/videos/watch-southern-man-brilliantly-schools-america-on-racism-and-white-privilege-video/">white Southern man</a> whose video analysis of racism, white supremacy and white fear of black vengeance went viral.<br /><br /><a href="http://thegrio.com/2014/12/14/black-women-lives-matter/">Veronica Agard</a>, a program associate at Humanity in Action and a transnational-black feminist who has written about black women and police violence, is torn about Rachel Dolezal. “My first thought was that she was practicing Blackface in an organization that is for and by people of color and the fact that happened is troublesome,” Agard told theGrio. “However, I’m also cautious of labelling her as ‘troubled’ or ‘delusional’ as mental illness should never be used to explain away people’s behaviors. I want to know not only why she thought that this was okay, but why her parents only JUST said something if they chose to out her.”<br /><br />Agard also raised the issue of Dolezal and white privilege. “I don’t agree with what she did, but her privilege as a white woman to CHOOSE to be another race is something that only white people can do. The same way that they can claim Native-American ancestry and be validated by each other. However, the one-drop rhetoric and mindset still applies when discussing blackness and black identity,” she added.<br /><br />Meanwhile, some black trans voices argue there is no comparison between gender and racial identity. “Equating racial identity to gender identity is black trans erasure. The longer we talk about Rachel Dolezal and Caitlin Jenner, the more we contribute to the systems of violence that oppress black people and especially black, trans people,” Elle Hearns, Central Region Field Coordinator at <a href="http://www.getequal.org/about.html">GetEQUAL</a> told theGrio.<br /><br />Hearns, who is a black trans woman, called the Dolezal affair a disappointing moment: “White supremacy goes so deep that in order to talk about race we must center the portrayal of blackness by a white woman to engage in conversation at all. This is systemic racism in action and we should be talking about LGBTQ liberation and uplifting stories of black trans people committed to surviving.”DALhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04202456579844317543noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6309703594747947933.post-3011327412220809352015-07-03T14:38:00.001-04:002015-07-03T14:38:19.054-04:00Texas pool party incident shows that Jim Crow’s ‘black codes’ may still be in effect<b>(<a href="http://thegrio.com/2015/06/08/texas-pool-party-jim-crow/">theGrio</a>) </b> Swimming while black is a crime? Or having a black pool party? Maybe the police in Texas have lost their minds. Then again, maybe the Lone Star state still denies black people the freedom to assemble, just like the black codes.<br /><br />A police officer was placed on administrative leave after a video surfaced of police detaining, manhandling and cursing at <a href="http://thegrio.com/2015/06/07/shocking-video-texas-police-attacking-black-teens-at-pool-party/">black teenagers at a pool party</a> in <a href="http://thegrio.com/2015/06/07/texas-police-respond-to-disturbing-pool-party-arrest-video-his-conduct-raised-concerns/">McKinney, Texas</a>, a Dallas suburb. The officers reportedly broke up the party after complaints in the neighborhood that there were too many black young people in the area. An officer is seen <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/07/us/mckinney-texas-pool-video-police/">pinning a 14-year old girl</a> to the ground and grabbing her by the breasts, and pulling a gun on young men who attempt to intervene. “Call my mama, oh God!” the young woman is heard shouting as the officer forces her to the ground. “On your face!” the officer orders her as he slams her, crying, to the ground, face first.<br /><a name='more'></a><br />Thankfully, none of these young people were killed. As we all know, the outcome could have been far worse. Nevertheless, what they endured was a traumatic experience that will haunt them forever. But exactly what did these kids do to deserve this treatment? Apparently, if there are too many black folks around, and white people get antsy and feel threatened, that is more than enough cause for arrest. <br /><br />Black people getting arrested “just because” is part of a long legacy of criminalization by virtue of their skin color. Under the <a href="http://www.ushistory.org/us/6f.asp">slave codes</a>, blacks were subject to curfews and could not assemble without whites present. And under the Jim Crow-era <a href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/67722/black-code">black codes</a> — which were derived from the slave codes — it was illegal for black people to assemble in public during the daytime or nighttime. Vagrancy could lead to arrests and fines for idle blacks, who became convict laborers if they were unable to pay the fines. This was how white supremacy was maintained <a href="https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/jsb01">in Texas and elsewhere</a>, and black people were kept in their place. <br /><br />Today, African-Americans find themselves in grave danger and their lives at risk when they come in contact with police. Typically, police justify killing a black suspect by claiming they thought that suspect had a gun. However, when you are black, no gun is necessary, and no crime is necessary. The police assume you are a criminal and up to no good, and a group of two or more black folks congregating is evidence enough of a crime in progress. <br /><br />Meanwhile, Texas just passed <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/texas-verge-passing-open-carry-law/">open carry legislation</a> allowing people to carry handguns in public in plain view and giving the green light to students at <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/05/guns-on-campus-texas_n_7520316.html">public colleges</a> to carry concealed guns on campus. Because what could go wrong with a bunch of drunken Texas frat boys at a <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-texas-guns-on-campus-20150602-story.html">keg party</a> where everybody is packing heat? <a href="http://www.politicalresearch.org/2014/06/19/mass-shooters-have-a-gender-and-a-race/">Mass murderers and campus shooters</a> are overwhelmingly white men, and society does not criminalize white men but rather gives them the benefit of the doubt. Of course, these laws were not meant with black people’s gun rights in mind. (Besides, just look what happened to the Black Panthers.) More importantly, the advocates for open carry also support stand your ground laws that justify the killing of people of color by white vigilantes. <br /><br />America has a long tradition of treating white criminals better than innocent black people. During Jim Crow segregation, <a href="http://www.atlantic-times.com/archive_detail.php?recordID=1917">German Nazi prisoners of war</a> were treated better than black soldiers, had <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=JV2o5VPHX_8C&pg=PA53&lpg=PA53&dq=black+soldiers+nazi+pows+train&source=bl&ots=8IFFymFNff&sig=Afz9Ubo2EpVqLmHBA6tS73SG2Rw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=dRR1VaKQKeexsASW1IHoBw&ved=0CDsQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=black%20soldiers%20nazi%20pows%20train&f=false">better quarters and more freedom</a> and were allowed to eat at <a href="http://worldwar2history.info/Army/Jim-Crow.html">“whites only” facilities</a>. Similarly, biker gang members who were involved in the May 17th <a href="http://thegrio.com/2015/05/18/biker-gangs-shootings-waco-police/">Waco, Texas, bloodbath</a> — including neo-Nazis wearing “SS” tattoos and patches — were treated by police with respect and with kid gloves. And they had fired on police officers and were alleged mass <a href="http://thegrio.com/2013/08/30/tamron-hall-talks-deadline-crime-and-opens-up-about-her-sisters-murder/">murder</a> suspects in a shootout that left nine dead and 18 injured. However, turn those biker gangs into black teenagers, take away their guns and put them in the middle of a pool party, and things would have been quite different, because that is where you find the real criminals.<br /><br />This is why we get angry. And this is why many in the community refuse to trust the police. Our children cannot go to a pool party without the cops shoving guns in their faces, brutalizing them and groping our daughters. Pool partying while black might be a new thing, but the “black codes” are not, and unfortunately, they may still be in effect. DALhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04202456579844317543noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6309703594747947933.post-36064169705679554572015-06-06T17:46:00.002-04:002015-06-06T17:46:52.124-04:00The Case For Reparations: 40 Acres and a Mule Would Cost America at Least $6.4 Trillion Today<b>(<a href="http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/05/23/case-reparations-40-acres-mule-cost-america-least-6-4-trillion-today/">Atlanta Blackstar</a>) </b>If you were to guess how much the United States owes Black people in economic damages for slavery, how much would it be?<br /><br />In the part of the “I Have A Dream” speech that no one seems to remember, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. declared: “It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’”<br /><br />While some people would conclude that no dollar amount can make up for the centuries that Black people were kidnapped, enslaved and forced to work without pay, the fact remains that our misfortune made America wealthy. Slavery built the system of U.S. capitalism. Moreover, some people have estimated what the nation actually owes Black people.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />YES! magazine published a fascinating infographic that illuminates the subject of reparations. It begins with a calculation that King made if America would stand by its promise of 40 acres and a mule, which is $20 a week since the late 1700s for 4 million slaves. The total was $800 billion, which in today’s dollars is $6.4 trillion.<br /><br /><br />
Just to put it in perspective, this year’s federal budget is projected at $3.9 trillion. U.S. gross domestic product in 2014 was $17.4 trillion. So, this sounds like a significant deal of money, except for the fact that this is a conservative estimate. Other calculations are far higher.<br /><br />For example, as the infographic shows, the National Legal and Policy Center placed reparations at $15 trillion, which would involve paying $500,000 to every slave descendant.<br /><br />Time magazine columnist Jack White estimated that Blacks are owed $24 trillion, which amounts to unpaid wages denied to 10 million slaves, doubled for pain and suffering with interest.<br /><br />Further, Dr. Denis G. Rancourt, a former physics professor at the University of Ottawa, determined the minimum amount of reparations is $59.2 trillion. He calculated that value of the stolen labor was $3.7 trillion, or 2 million slaves working 10 hours a day, 365 days a year for 70 years (between 1790 and 1860) at a rate of $7.25 an hour. Applying a 2 percent interest rate compounded annually, he reached the $59.2 trillion figure.<br /><br />Without question, there is a strong case for reparations. The institution of slavery created the economic basis for modern capitalism and turned the U.S. into the wealthiest nation in the world. New York was built on cotton — the crop that dominated the international markets in the 1800s — as the city collected 40 cents of every dollar earned in the cotton trade, transforming it into a financial center. Moreover, at the start of the Civil War, slaves were worth 48 percent of the wealth of the South, more than all of the banks, factories and railroads in the country combined.<br /><br />Meanwhile, the government paid reparations to slave owners, but not to Black people themselves. Rather, America maintained a convict lease system that swept up Black men and created a new form of slavery in the Southern prisons. The Black Codes were designed to impede Black progress and keep whites ahead of the game through discriminatory practices. Special fees for Black people discouraged us from owning businesses, and high interest rates hindered the building of Black wealth. In addition, segregation and racist policies have prevented Black people from benefiting from government programs that were made available to whites. As a result, the Black share of national wealth changed very little between 1865 (0.5 percent) and 1990 (1.0 percent), with very little for us to pass down to future generations. In addition, the wealth gap between Blacks and whites has not changed since 1970. Policies have kept Black people underwater and whites afloat and thriving — on purpose.<br /><br />This is why reparations make so much sense, and this is what white privilege looks like. True racism exists not solely in the offensive remarks and epithets hurled by individual whites at Black people on a daily basis, but more importantly in the systems of oppression that stack the deck and rig the game. Whites mistakenly believe that racism is a thing of the past, and that slavery is something that occurred long ago from which they derive no benefit. However, there is a continuum of racial discrimination that extends from slavery times up until now, with mass incarceration and the war on drugs creating a new form of enslavement for Black people. White folks have inherited the wealth and privilege derived from free Black labor, which they willingly enjoy today. Similarly, Blacks have inherited, and continue to face the effects of this rigged game — which continues into the present day, even as we have struggled and resisted this system and attempted to build for themselves.<br /><br />Every year since 1989, Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan) has introduced H.R. 40, a bill which calls for a commission to study reparations. In April, the Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW), led by Dr. Ron Daniels, held an international conference in New York, with participants from 20 countries and throughout the diaspora discussing global reparations strategies.<br /><br />As for estimating the price tag, this is one way to continue the discussion and bring home the gravity of the issue.<br /><br />“They owe us a lot of money,” Dr. King said. DALhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04202456579844317543noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6309703594747947933.post-71782941813736938252015-06-06T17:43:00.000-04:002015-06-06T17:43:15.617-04:00 MOVE Bombing: The Day the Police Burned Down a Black Philly Neighborhood<b>(<a href="http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/05/14/move-bombing-day-police-burned-black-philly-neighborhood/">Atlanta Blackstar</a>)</b> Never could one imagine the police doing this in a white neighborhood.<br /><br />On May 13, 1985, the Philadelphia police engaged in a race riot when they dropped a bomb on the roof of a row house in a Black section of West Philadelphia. It was Mother’s Day, and Black mothers and children were killed that day, intentionally burned and shot to death by police. Eleven people, including five children ages 7 to 13 — all members of the radical Black liberation group MOVE — died.<br /><br />In the end, 61 homes in this Black residential neighborhood were burned to the ground. Most of all, all of it was done on purpose because the officials in charge said their intent was to let the fire burn.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />It had all the makings of a race riot, a lynching. Claiming the MOVE members were a terrorist threat to the community, with automatic weapons and shotguns that did not exist, police with warrant in hand attempted to arrest the MOVE members. Residents of the entire block had been evacuated and told not to return in 24 hours. The water and gas lines were shut off. SWAT teams came rolling in with massive fire power.<br /><br />After firing a barrage of teargas and water cannons at the MOVE house, police, claiming they had been fired upon by automatic weapons, unloaded 10,000 rounds of ammunition into the house. Finally, police used a state police helicopter to drop four pounds of military-grade C-4 explosives on the roof of the house.<br /><br />The MOVE Commission, established to investigate the bombing, called the conduct of city officials and the police that day “criminal evil,” and reported that the entire incident would not have occurred “had the MOVE house and its occupants been situated in a comparable white neighborhood.” Further, as attorney Michael Coard wrote in Philadelphia Magazine, although the FBI had stopped sending C-4 to local police departments in 1979, documented records showed that 30 blocks of C-4 were delivered to Philadelphia by an FBI agent in connection with “an anticipated confrontation with MOVE.”<br /><br />Moreover, the report from the city medical examiner provided proof that six of the 11 people died as a result of gunfire outside the house rather than from the fire inside. There were two survivors, an adult, Ramona Africa, and a child named Birdie Africa, who received a $1.5 million judgment from a federal court. No officials were prosecuted for their misdeeds that day.<br /><br /><br />
As journalist Linn Washington reported, a number of MOVE members tried to escape, and were met with gunfire. “And it was later determined that the police fired on the escaping MOVE members, driving some of them back into the house,” Washington told Democracy Now! Washington echoes the finding of the commission that police gunfire in the rear alley prevented some occupants of the MOVE house from escaping. “But in the convoluted logic that many of us have seen over the last year from grand juries in St. Louis County and in New York and in southern Ohio, where the guy was shot in a Wal-Mart, the grand jury, under the control of Philadelphia prosecutors, determined that MOVE members ran back into the house not because police were firing at them, but because they mistakenly believed that police were firing at them and/or they ran back to intentionally commit suicide,” Washington added.<br /><br />The bombing of the 6200 block on Osage Avenue in West Philly was the culmination of years of police brutality and corruption in the so-called City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection, which has shown little of either to Black people over the years. Communities of color, and groups such as the Black Panther Party, had endured years of harassment, monitoring and over-policing from law enforcement. As for MOVE, the group had faced a police barricade in 1978, which resulted in the death of a police officer — reportedly by police gunfire — and murder and conspiracy convictions for nine MOVE members. They received sentences ranging between 30 and 100 years, and remain in prison to this day. Some police officers involved in the 1978 incident, including the beating of a MOVE member, purportedly participated in the 1985 operation as an act of revenge.<br /><br />And yet, we know this was not the first time a Black community was destroyed by an aerial bombing.In this 21st century reality of police violence emanating from Ferguson, Baltimore, North Charleston and everywhere else, the 1985 police burning of West Philly demands our attention, and reminds us of the intractability of the problems the Black community faces.<br /><br />In 1921, amid rumors that a Black man attacked a white woman, a white lynch mob led by the Klan descended upon the African-American community of Tulsa, Oklahoma — known as Greenwood, or Black Wall Street — and destroyed everything. World War I airplanes dropped bombs on the prosperous Black community. Hundreds, perhaps more, were killed, while 10,000 were left homeless, and 35 square blocks and 600 businesses were destroyed. The Oklahoma National Guard was called in, and Black people were placed in detention camps. This was the heyday of race riots and lynchings, when whites were resentful of Black progress, and responded with ethnic cleansing.<br /><br />So, when we look at the MOVE bombing and ask how this happened, how the murder of innocent women, children and men was allowed to occur without punishment, we must understand that the nation has had a great deal of practice with these things.<br /><br />As Martin Luther King reminds us even in death, America is plagued by the evil triplets of racism, militarism and economic exploitation. Further, as we bear witness to the protest and unrest that unfold with each subsequent act of police violence, detractors will focus on rioters and looters rather than the systemic conditions that led to the unrest. We can look back to a day 30 years ago, when police waged a race riot against a Black neighborhood and burned it down. DALhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04202456579844317543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6309703594747947933.post-14981008542643154702015-06-06T17:36:00.003-04:002015-06-06T17:36:58.461-04:00Why the Latest Protests in Tel Aviv is Damming Proof That Brutality Against Black People is a Global Struggle<b>(<a href="http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/05/08/why-the-latest-protests-in-tel-aviv-is-damming-proof-that-brutality-against-black-people-is-a-global-struggle/">Atlanta Blackstar</a>) </b>#BlackLivesMatter everywhere.<br /><br />This scene sounds familiar: A Black man was stopped and beaten by police, and the attack was caught on video. In response, Black people protested in the streets—not only because of the police attack on that particular man, but as a reaction to years of the systemic racial discrimination, economic marginalization and police brutality they have collectively faced. Tensions have been brewing for quite some time, and the incident was just the spark that set things off. And of course, police responded to the demonstrators with heavy-handed tactics, causing violence to erupt.<br /><br />This is not Ferguson, North Charleston, Staten Island or Baltimore—this is Tel Aviv, Israel. And to be Black in Israel, not unlike America, is to be treated like a second-class citizen.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />A video shows a white police officer assaulting Damas Pakada, a Black Israeli soldier in the Tel Aviv suburb of Holon. Police arrested Pakada and took him into detention overnight. He was let go after footage was released and went viral. Nevertheless, such incidents involving Ethiopians are commonplace, and one has to wonder what would have happened to the man in the absence of a video.<br /><br />A May 3 protest of thousands in Tel Aviv, the nation’s capital was met with police force, including riot police, officers on horseback, water cannons and stun grenades.<br /><br />Although Pakada was not killed in this incident, some Ethiopian protesters could not help but make parallels with the case of Freddie Gray, who was recently killed while in the custody of Baltimore police. As was reported in Mondoweiss, Ethiopian Israeli protesters in Jerusalem were heard yelling “Baltimore is here!” to highlight the tensions with police and the brutality to which they are subjected on a regular basis.<br /><br />Ethiopian men, in particular, are subjected to aggressive police tactics, including racial profiling and “overpolicing,” as The New York Timesreported. In March 2014, Israel had its own Ferguson when Yosef Salamseh, known as the Michael Brown of Israel, was stopped by police in a public park and accused of breaking into a house. Salamseh was detained in a police station, but only after being tasered, kicked and handcuffed by police, and having his legs shackled. His family discovered him bound and unconscious. He died a few months later, a “suicide” according to police.<br /><br />And there are other cases. Fifteen years ago, in southern Israel, Eli Malassa, 33, was accused by a police officer of stealing the army uniform he was wearing and was beaten. In 2010, Uri Muallem, 30, was pepper sprayed in the eyes by police and handcuffed while attending a family gathering. He said he spent three days in jail and was sentenced to four months of community service for attacking a police officer.<br /><br />However, police abuse is merely the tip of the iceberg for Ethiopians living in Israel. Numbering at around 135,000 in a nation of 8 million people, Israelis of Ethiopian descent are the result of mass migration in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1975, Israel recognized these Ethiopians, who have been Jews for thousands of years, as Jews. And as such, they were airlifted to Israel based on Israel’s Law of Return. However, this ancient people was forced to undergo a symbolic immersion ceremony reserved only for them to prove their Jewishness.<br /><br />Today, Ethiopian Jews suffer from the highest poverty rate in the country, with about half of Ethiopian families living in poverty and earning 63 cents for every dollar the rest of the population earns, according to the Ethiopian National Project, an Israeli nonprofit. In 2010, only 65 percent of Ethiopian Israelis were regularly employed, and many are subjected to exploitation and discrimination. Numerous reports of the daily injustices this population faces include being barred from clubs, buses and schools, and harassed by police amid suspicions they are undocumented immigrants, possibly Eritreans.<br /><br />In 2012, after reports that landlords conspired to deny apartment rentals to Ethiopians, protesters set up a tent near the prime minister’s residence to bring attention to the discrimination Ethiopians face in Israeli society. Perhaps one of the most outrageous examples of human rights abuses came in 2013, when Israel’s health ministry investigated claims that thousands of Ethiopian women were injected with the controversial contraceptive Depo-Provera without their knowledge or consent—an alleged policy to control the Black population. In addition, in 1996, unrest ensued after news that the health ministry destroyed all blood donated by Ethiopians over fears the samples were infected with the HIV virus.<br /><br />Further, in the Israeli army, one quarter of Ethiopians fail to complete their service, and soldiers of Ethiopian origin are underrepresented among military officers. Western-style, culturally insensitive testing relegates them to menial jobs, and they face segregated courses. Moreover, 40 percent of Ethiopian men in the army are sent to military prison, typically due to desertion.<br /><br />Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Mr. Pakada and members of the Ethiopian community, as he should. Yet, as the Israeli leader forms his new rightwing government, he should consider his own role, and that of his Likud Party, in stoking the flames of racism.<br /><br />African refugees in Israel from Sudan, Eritrea and Congo number about 47,000. Most have fled war and genocide. And rightwing Israeli politicians have demonized and scapegoated these Africans as a cancer to the country. Netanyahu has called them “illegal infiltrators” that are flooding the country, even comparing them to an Ebola plague. Hatred of Black people has been translated into policy, as some 2,200 African men are detained in an open-air desert camp, guilty of no other crime than being Black Africans and asylum seekers.<br /><br />No stranger to racism, Israel has a long history of discrimination against Jews of color, including Mizrahi Jews of Arab descent, who formed their own Black Panthers civil rights movement in the 1970s to fight the social injustices, poverty, unemployment and inferior education. Non-Jewish Israeli citizens of Palestinian Arab origin are treated like second and third-class citizens, with legislation designed to marginalize and harass them.<br /><br />The 100-ton elephant in the room is the occupation of the Palestinian Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza—an apartheid system that denies Palestinians their basic human rights, and keeps them imprisoned in their own country, without citizenship.<br /><br />Surely, Israel is not the United States, and circumstances are not identical. However, oppression and injustice are universal constants, and the parallels are unmistakable. Throughout the African diaspora, Black people refuse to be treated like the “other” or less than a child of God. Ultimately, they find themselves protesting their condition and resisting white supremacy, whether in Ferguson or Baltimore, Jerusalem or Tel Aviv.DALhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04202456579844317543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6309703594747947933.post-5939063034003549512015-06-06T17:32:00.002-04:002015-06-06T20:59:44.768-04:00The Community Can Bring About an End to the Police as We Know It<b>(<a href="http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/05/29/community-can-bring-end-police-know/">Atlanta Blackstar</a>) </b> Observing all of the activity coming out of the U.S. Department of Justice these days, it seems the feds are now in the business of cleaning up police departments or at least telling the police about their business. Will things change as a result, and should the community play a more active role in policing?<br /><br />The DOJ investigated the Cleveland Police Department and released a report that found that the police had a pattern of using unreasonable and unnecessary force in violation of the Fourth Amendment, including deadly force, Tasers and chemical spray, excessive force against the mentally ill and dangerous tactics that place civilians and officers at risk. The feds told the Cleveland police to stop beating people upside the head with their guns.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />The report comes on the heels of other reports, on the rampant racism and brutality in Ferguson, Missouri, whose city government has operated a revenue generating scheme based on the exploitation of poor Black people through fines and arrests. As for Baltimore, the DOJ announced a federal civil rights investigation into that city’s law enforcement practices. Then there is Philadelphia, where the agency released a report condemning the city’s police department for its deadly force practices and policies, including faulty training and supervision.<br /><br />This is headed somewhere, but exactly where? How many more Fergusons do we need? Now we see that cities are engaging in damage control and riot prevention, and breathing a sigh of relief when a white man, rather than a Black man or woman, is shot by police. But are these police departments concerned about addressing the root problem, or intent upon window dressing as they remain in the dark and continue to engage in their dirty deeds?<br /><br />The larger issue is, given what we know about other cities across the nation, it’s time for the federal government to start investigating all police forces or require, as some suggest, uniform standards for all law enforcement across the country? Better yet, does the community need to do its own policing, or the policing of the police, in the spirit of the Black Panthers?<br /><br />Vanita Gupta, President Barack Obama’s new head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, said it best when she attributed the unrest in Ferguson and Baltimore to the <a href="http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/05/20/vanita-gupta-doj-americas-grim-history-slavery-jim-crow-laws-heart-black-communitys-lack-trust-police/">legacy of slavery and Jim Crow</a>. Certainly, this is a good starting point in order to address the situation of police in Black communities. After all, we need to examine the origins of the police — which for the working poor originate in the goon squads, the muscle hired by the business bigwigs to crush organized labor. As for Black people, their first experience with the cops were the slave patrols that enforced the antebellum police state. So, from Day 1, police — in collaboration with the Ku Klux Klan and the lynch mob — were designed to terrorize and criminalize the Black community, which is why being Black in America has meant navigating through life under a constant threat of death.<br /><br />Malcolm X said it best when he called the Black neighborhood a police state, and “the most heavily patrolled” community:<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
The controlled press inflames the white public against Negroes. The police are able to use it to paint the Negro community as a criminal element. The police are able to use the press to make the white public think that 90 percent or 99 percent of the Negroes in the Negro community are criminals, and once the white public is convinced that most of the Negro community is a criminal element, then this automatically paves the way for the police to move into the Negro community exercising Gestapo tactics, stopping any black man who is on the sidewalk, whether he is guilty or whether he is innocent, whether he is well-dressed or whether he is poorly dressed, whether he is educated or whether he is dumb, whether he’s a Christian or whether he’s a Muslim, as long as he is black and a member of the Negro community the white public thinks that the white policeman is justified in going in there and trampling on that man’s civil rights and on that man’s human rights.</blockquote>
<br />Brother Malcolm sounded as if he had visited Ferguson or Baltimore in 2015, but, more importantly, the insidious conditions that created Ferguson have not abated but rather have remained the same. Meanwhile, what is the solution, community policing? Community policing — the notion that police are a partner with the community, emanate from the community, walk the streets and know everybody on the block — has potential, provided the police are not seeking a way of getting closer to the Black community in order to better infiltrate and disrupt us, as in the days of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and COINTELPRO.<br /><br />Policing must either be reinvented or abolished rather than tweaked at the edges. Some form of community oversight and accountability, that is, policing the police, is in order. The Black Panther Party had the right idea with its citizen patrols monitoring the police and resisting police brutality. The black leather jackets and berets made for good optics in the Black community, and their bold stance on protecting the community from police oppression placed them on an equal footing with the cops. Further, their positive presence in the neighborhood and their social service programs had an impact, so much so that Hoover called the Panthers’ free breakfast program the “greatest threat to the internal security of the United States.” It is for that reason — not to mention the negrophobic hatred of an FBI director who was apparently passing for white — that the Panthers and other Black organizations had to be eliminated.<br /><br />If some aggressive steps are not taken today, then we will return a decade or two from now, and psychopaths and domestic abusers in blue uniforms will continue to prey upon us. Our children will continue to die in the streets, and we will wonder why the problems in our community have not subsided.DALhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04202456579844317543noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6309703594747947933.post-10175093116858132672015-06-06T17:26:00.001-04:002015-06-06T17:26:09.118-04:00Predatory Lending and the Deliberate Destruction of Black Economic Power<b>(<a href="http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/06/04/predatory-lending-and-the-deliberate-destruction-of-black-economic-power/">Atlanta Blackstar</a>) </b> Economic exploitation in the Black community is real, and a reminder that racism goes far beyond hating Black people and calling us names. Not to downplay the effects of that individualized, person-to-person discrimination, but we need to focus far more on institutional racism, the policies that pick our pockets and rob us blind for generations. Old patterns of systemic discrimination continue, stealing from the Black community and placing it at a disadvantage with wealth accumulation.<br /><br />Financial institutions still engage in the economic exploitation of Black America, a reality which was brought home amid the devastation of African-American and Latino communities during the Great Recession. As was published in the most recent edition of the journal Social Problems, Black borrowers in segregated cities have been preyed upon with subprime mortgages, destroying families and entire communities. The U.S. housing meltdown and the foreclosure crisis was a racialized process.<br /><a name='more'></a><br />Sociologists Jacob Rugh, Len Albright and Douglas Massey focused on the operations of Wells Fargo in Baltimore. The financial services company—which paid $175 million in 2012 to settle claims related to predatory lending in Black neighborhoods across the country—targeted Black Baltimore residents with higher rates than whites at every stage of the game. Think of it as a racial penalty that costs a Black homeowner thousands upon thousands of dollars.<br /><br />The analysis found that Black borrowers paid an extra 5 to 11 percent in monthly payments that white borrowers did not have to pay. Meanwhile, those in the study who experienced foreclosure lost over $2 million in home equity. On a 30-year mortgage, the typical Black borrower paid an additional $14,904, and nearly $16,000 if that person lived in a Black neighborhood. Black borrowers with incomes over $50,000 were targeted for extra discrimination, under the observation that Blacks with higher incomes experience greater exposure to racial discrimination because of their increased contact with whites.<br /><br />Further, the report paints the U.S. as a society where racial categories help determine the ability to own property, transfer wealth and own a home. Moreover, whiteness is itself a form a property that confers both psychological and tangible benefits to white people in the accumulation of wealth through home ownership.<br /><br />“We conceptualize race as a cumulative disadvantage because of its direct and indirect effects on socioeconomic status at the individual and neighborhood levels, with consequences that reverberate across a borrower’s life and between generations,” the authors noted.<br /><br />Meanwhile, the Department of Housing and Urban Development just settled with Associated Bank for its policy of redlining, specifically discriminating against Black and Latino borrowers in Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) alleged that between 2008 and 2010, the bank denied mortgage loans to qualified Black and Latino borrowers in so-called “majority-minority census tracts.”<br /><br />Under the agreement, Associated Bank must, among other things, pay $10 million in down payments and closing cost assistance to borrowers of color, and invest nearly $200 million through increased lending activity in Black and Latino areas. HUD called it “one of the largest redlining complaints” the federal government has brought against a mortgage lender. In addition, according to a study from the University of Minnesota, very high income Blacks were 3.8 times more likely to receive subprime mortgages from Wells Fargo and other institutions than whites with very low income, and 1.9 times more likely to receive subprime refinancing.<br /><br />Although the practice of redlining sounds like something relegated to the dustbin of history, redlining is alive and well. For years, from the creation of the Federal Housing Administration in 1934—which openly refused loans to Black people before it was outlawed by the Fair Housing Act of 1968—redlining was an established practice. It conjures up images of banks taking a map and physically marking off by race the “risky” communities that would receive no access to capital, no mortgages, no business investment.<br /><br />Poor white home buyers were far more likely to receive loans than affluent Black home buyers. This placed Black people at a severe disadvantage, and as a consequence Black neighborhoods were allowed to collapse and crumble, the businesses closed without others to take their place, and the people in those communities had no access to basic services. The poverty rates we see today in Baltimore and elsewhere correlate with the redlining maps used during the past century.<br /><br />Now, Wall Street has found new ways to profit from the suffering of Black people who have foreclosed on their homes by getting into the rental market. As Jacobin magazine reported, Wall Street investors have bought up hundreds of thousands of foreclosed single-family homes and converted them to rental properties, thus becoming the new landlords of many of these foreclosed former homeowners.<br /><br />The bursting of the housing bubble and the subprime mortgage crisis represented the largest theft of Black people in modern history. Black borrowers have lost between $72 billion and $93 billion due to these fraudulent loans, and Latino borrowers between $76 billion and $98 billion according to United for a Fair Economy. And the Pew Research Center notes that while the net worth of white households dropped 16 percent, Black families experienced a remarkable 53 percent decline in net worth.<br /><br />Meanwhile, it is worth noting that Black Wall Street—the Black community of Tulsa, Oklahoma that was destroyed by a white mob in 1921—lost over 600 businesses, including banks, real estate and insurance companies. Money circulated throughout the community, and Black residents controlled their economic destiny.<br /><br />It is said that when America catches a cold, Black folks get pneumonia. Well, in this case the crimes perpetrated against Black people are the economic and financial equivalent of the Tuskegee Experiment.DALhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04202456579844317543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6309703594747947933.post-73960483386130968332015-06-06T17:18:00.001-04:002015-06-06T17:18:23.170-04:00States Humiliate the Poor With Food Stamp Crackdown<b>(<a href="http://www.progressive.org/news/2015/05/188153/states-humiliate-poor-food-stamp-crackdown">The Progressive</a>)</b> Legislators across the country are launching a mean-spirited campaign to block poor people from purchasing certain kinds of foods, products, or services. <br /><br />Missouri state Rep. Rick Brattin has introduced a <a href="http://www.house.mo.gov/billsummary.aspx?bill=HB813&year=2015&code=R">bill </a>to prevent food stamp recipients from buying “cookies, chips, energy drinks, soft drinks, seafood, or steak.” <br /><br />A bill in the Wisconsin Legislature would require people who apply for food stamps or unemployment insurance to pass a <a href="http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2015/proposals/ab191">drug test</a>. Lawmakers <a href="http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2015/proposals/ab177">also want to prohibit </a>those on food stamps from purchasing “crab, lobster, shrimp, or any other shellfish."<br /><a name='more'></a><br />The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, once commonly known as food stamps, permits people to obtain any food items except alcohol or hot prepared meals. One in seven Americans—roughly 46 million people—rely on the food assistance program. States must apply for a waiver from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to place extra limits on the program, which makes the “no shellfish” rules all the more absurd, since the federal government won’t allow them anyway. <br /><br />However, the 1996 federal welfare reform law gives states discretion to craft their own Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs. Here is where the bash-the-poor policy can really gain traction.<br /><br />Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has signed a bill that <a href="http://www.kansascity.com/opinion/editorials/article21316689.html">prevents</a> welfare recipients from withdrawing more than $25 a day from an ATM and prohibits them from doing business with movie theaters, fortune tellers, cruise ships, swimming pools, and liquor stores. <br /><br />Such measures, supposedly enacted in the name of cutting waste, fraud, and abuse, reflect a form of humiliation of the poor at a time when hunger and poverty are widespread. <br /><br />Hunger is now a chronic problem in the United States. According to the Agriculture Department, 14.3 percent of U.S. households were food insecure in 2013 and 5.6 percent had very low food security. Approximately 45 million people—14.5 percent of the nation—live below the poverty line, nearly the highest number since these figures have been recorded. <br /><br />The problem is not that too many poor people are splurging on snacks. The problem is that folks are hurting in America, and many who are working are not making a living wage. For most workers, real wages have not increased for decades. <br /><br />According to a <a href="http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/pdf/2015/the-high-public-cost-of-low-wages.pdf">study </a>from the University of California–Berkeley, 56 percent of people on government assistance—including food stamps, Medicaid, and the Earned Income Tax Credit—are working. This includes 52 percent of fast food workers, 48 percent of home care workers, 46 percent of child care workers, and a quarter of part-time college faculty. <br /><br />Making it harder for the poor to eat is a cynical political ploy. It builds white resentment over government programs.<br /><br /> “If you can convince the lowest white man that he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket,” President Lyndon Johnson once said. “Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll even empty his pockets for you.”<br /><br />Politicians want to distract the public with talk about food stamps and shellfish so that people won’t notice that the rich are the ones actually picking their pockets. <br /><br /><br />DALhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04202456579844317543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6309703594747947933.post-81980296451764677852015-06-06T17:14:00.001-04:002015-06-06T17:14:21.529-04:00A New Movement Can Help Reboot America’s Voting System<b>(<a href="http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/06/05/new-movement-can-help-reboot-america-s-voting-system">TakePart</a>)</b> Earlier this week, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called for bold reforms to America’s voting system. She suggested that all Americans be automatically registered to vote at age 18, and that voting privileges be extended to ex-felons. She also called for the full restoration of the Voting Rights Act, which lifted many of the barriers to black people participating in our democracy.<br /><br />Clinton’s remarks underscore the need for voters of color to be engaged—and, ultimately, increase our participation in the political process. Republican-controlled state legislatures are promoting various measures—such as requiring voter identification cards—to limit the risk of voter fraud. The truth is, voter fraud rarely occurs.<br /><a name='more'></a><br />There is no question that <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/10/voter_id_s_real_roots_is_it_racism_or_hyper_partisanship.html">partisan politics</a> play a role in the war over voting rights. Democrats stand to gain from <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/165752/voter-registration-lags-among-hispanics-asians.aspx">higher voter participation</a> by people of color and the young. However, there is <a href="http://www.demos.org/blog/5/18/15/racism-destroying-right-vote">evidence</a> to substantiate claims that these GOP voter suppression laws have an explicitly racist intent in blocking the black and brown vote. According to an analysis by the liberal-leaning public policy organization <a href="http://www.demos.org/blog/6/4/15/two-year-anniversary-vras-repeal-new-evidence-voter-id-laws-are-racially-biased">Demos</a>, white people who live in the states with the most restrictive voter ID laws are more likely to have racist views toward black people. <br /><br />That’s why a new movement is necessary to restore and expand the voting rights that people fought and sometimes died for. These are rights that have often been taken for granted—that is, until the arrival of Barack Obama on the national political scene. He was sent to the White House by a multiracial coalition, and he drew many new black voters. In 2012, for the first time, <a href="http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/08/18131900-a-census-first-black-voter-turnout-passes-whites">black voter participation</a> was at a higher rate than for whites. According to Pew Research Center, <a href="http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/12/26/the-growing-electoral-clout-of-blacks-is-driven-by-turnout-not-demographics/">black turnout</a> drives black electoral clout. Nevertheless, our voting rights are still taken for granted too often. In the South, there are nearly 3.7 million unregistered blacks and 4 million unregistered Asian-Americans and Latinos. If these people registered to vote and showed up at the polls, they’d be a powerful force—and a threat to Republicans.<br /><br />Automatic registration makes sense, given the long lines, bureaucratic snafus, and lost votes that have plagued polling places across the country. <a href="http://www.pewtrusts.org/~/media/legacy/uploadedfiles/pcs_assets/2012/PewUpgradingVoterRegistrationpdf.pdf">Millions of voter records are incorrect</a>. Many people cannot carry their voter registration with them when they move. An estimated<a href="http://www.democracyjournal.org/28/make-it-easy-the-case-for-automatic-registration.php">24 percent</a> of eligible voters are not registered. Sixty percent of the unregistered are the so-called <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/page-gardner/the-real-crisis-35--of-am_b_1615318.html">Rising American Electorate</a>—which includes unmarried women, people of color, and people under 30, and who comprise 53 percent of the eligible voting population. Meanwhile, seniors, who are among the groups <a href="http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/critics-of-voter-id-laws-seek-out-the-unregistered/">disproportionately impacted</a> by voter ID laws, have the best turnout of any age group. There’s proof that automatic registration works: Oregon, the first state to implement automatic registration, achieved the highest voter turnout rate, at <a href="http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/03/17/oregon-becomes-the-first-state-to-implement-sweeping-automatic-voter-registration/">73 percent</a>, in 2014.<br /><br />The Clinton proposal will be no an easy feat—especially with a Republican-controlled Congress. This year, there are various bills across the U.S. to <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/hillary-clinton-calls-for-sweeping-expansion-of-voter-registration/2015/06/04/691f210c-0adb-11e5-9e39-0db921c47b93_story.html">expand and restrict access to voting</a>.<br /><br />The right to vote doesn’t need to be a partisan issue, or racialized. The stakes are high. The wealthiest Americans are effectively determining the outcomes of our elections and how our government operates. Low voter participation hurts our communities—and our country. We can’t afford to have black and Latino voices locked out of democracy.<br /><br />Ultimately, in the post-Obama era, blacks, Latinos—and all Americans—must strategically organize to drive change. People will get engaged and to the polls if they understand what is at stake and how their lives are affected. The nation is witnessing a great deal of energy around the Black Lives Matter movement, which is tied to a host of socioeconomic and political issues. An effort to connect the killing of black bodies in the street to the civic death that people of color face with voter suppression could prove an effective organizing strategy.DALhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04202456579844317543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6309703594747947933.post-20679421501381760332015-06-06T17:11:00.004-04:002015-06-06T17:19:29.058-04:00These Are the States That Have ‘Stand Your Ground’ Laws<b>(<a href="http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/05/27/these-are-states-have-stand-your-ground-laws">TakePart</a>)</b> A Nevada <a href="http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/nevada/nevada-s-stand-your-ground-law-spotlight">murder trial</a> is renewing the debate over America’s “Stand Your Ground” self-defense laws. <br />
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The story begins in February, when Cody Devine, 34, and Janai Wilson, 29, apparently went, without permission, to a vacant rental property near Reno, Nevada, owned by Wayne Burgarello. According to prosecutors, Burgarello, 73, found Devine and Wilson resting on a floor. He shot them. Burgarello maintains he was acting in self-defense under Nevada’s Stand Your Ground law.<br />
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The case is an important reminder about the debate over the controversial laws. Thirty-three states have adopted some form of Stand Your Ground law, according to the <a href="http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/states_with_stand_your_ground_laws_have_more_homicides/">American Bar Association</a>. Ten states have introduced bills to repeal or scale back their Stand Your Ground laws this year, and 13 states have pending legislation to strengthen or enact such laws.<br />
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Florida was the first state to enact such legislation, in 2005, under then Gov. Jeb Bush, who is currently a Republican presidential candidate. Florida essentially immunizes a person from criminal prosecution or civil action, provided he proves the use of force was necessary to prevent death or serious harm.<br />
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<img src="http://www.takepart.com/sites/default/files/styles/feature_article_full/public/stand-your-ground-map-INLINE.jpg?itok=Rw7jQH-a" height="289" width="400" /><br />
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(Map: Courtesy Al Jazeera.com)<br />
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For years, much of the United States has followed the “castle doctrine,” which basically holds that a person’s home is her castle, which gives that person the right to defend her home through the use of deadly force—and without legal consequences. The <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/27/national/27shoot.html?_r=0">National Rifle Association</a> and the <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/166978/how-alec-took-floridas-license-kill-law-national">American Legislative Exchange Council</a>—a group of conservative lawmakers—began a push for legislation that ultimately would upend the castle doctrine.<br />
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Stand Your Ground laws provide more latitude to invoke self-defense as grounds for killing someone posing an imminent threat. Typically, such laws permit the use of deadly force outside the home against a perpetrator, regardless of whether the perpetrator is armed.<br />
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It’s worth remembering that much of the country was introduced to Stand Your Ground laws after the 2012 fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black youth.<br />
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Stand Your Ground advocates—particularly the gun industry—argue that the laws are necessary protection from violent criminals. But critics—gun control groups, civil rights activists, and even some law enforcement officials—maintain that they fuel a trigger-happy culture. The renewed debate over Stand Your Ground comes at a <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/179045/less-half-americans-support-stricter-gun-laws.aspx">remarkable point</a> in our thinking about guns: For the first time in nearly two decades, a <a href="http://www.people-press.org/2014/12/10/growing-public-support-for-gun-rights/">majority</a> of Americans say it’s important to protect citizens’ right to own guns.<br />
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At a time when the killing of unarmed African Americans by police has given birth to the Black Lives Matter movement, Stand Your Ground critics point to racial fear and bias in the law’s implementation, with a particular appeal to white jurors. <br />
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In states with Stand Your Ground laws, justifiable homicides have increased 85 percent, and the shooting of a black person by a white person is deemed justifiable <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2013/0806/Racial-bias-and-stand-your-ground-laws-what-the-data-show">17 percent of the time</a>. Meanwhile, the shooting of whites by blacks is found justifiable in only 1 percent of cases.</div>
DALhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04202456579844317543noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6309703594747947933.post-50265132330759365292015-06-06T17:08:00.001-04:002015-06-06T17:08:31.463-04:00America Is Abolishing the Death Penalty—but Let’s Fix the Criminal Justice System<b>(<a href="http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/05/29/america-abolishing-death-penalty-let-s-fix-criminal-justice-system">TakePart</a>)</b> Earlier this week, Nebraska became <a href="http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/05/27/nebraska-death-penalty-repeal">the first conservative state in 40 years</a> to abolish the death penalty. The Republican-controlled legislature in one of the deepest-red states overrode the veto of Gov. Pete Ricketts, also a Republican, effectively dismantling what has been a cornerstone of conservative criminal justice policy for much of the last half-century. Nebraska lawmakers also voted to make life without parole the highest criminal penalty in the Cornhusker State.<br /><br />With seven states in as many years abandoning the death penalty—for a total of 19 abolition states and 31 remaining death penalty states—it is heartening to see America moving toward an end to capital punishment. However, we must urgently, and smartly, fix the underlying issues that still drive people into the criminal justice system. <br /><a name='more'></a><br />Americans promote the sentence of life without parole as a worthy alternative to execution. The argument is painfully simple: Society should “lock ’em up” and throw away the key. But this is draconian, and it proves how we’re addicted to incarceration. It’s also why America has the dubious distinction of being the world’s incarceration leader. We have 5 percent of the world’s population—but <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27260073">25 percent of all prisoners</a>. More than 2 million people languish behind bars in the land of the free, including<a href="https://www.aclu.org/prison-crisis">one in every 99 adults</a>. <br /><br />Far too often, the nation has shunned rehabilitation in favor of pure retribution and punishment. Prisons have served as a cash cow, a form of social control, and a substitute for quality public education and jobs. The poor and people of color bear the brunt of mass incarceration, a consequence of a war on drugs that targets them for stop-and-frisk, arrest and conviction. More than <a href="http://www.sentencingproject.org/template/page.cfm?id=122">60 percent of prisoners</a> are racial and ethnic minorities, and one in 10 black men in their thirties are in prison or jail. <br /><br />Our system of plea bargaining prioritizes expediency over guilt or innocence, as most indigent defendants, unable to afford a dream team, are provided inadequate legal representation. Nearly 94 percent of state cases and 97 percent of federal cases end in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/us/stronger-hand-for-judges-after-rulings-on-plea-deals.html">plea bargains</a>, where defendants agree to plead guilty in exchange for a lighter sentence.<br /><br />The funneling of so many people into the system comes at a substantial human cost. The war on drugs has decimated communities and separated families as children grow up without their parents—leading to a vicious cycle of violence and imprisonment. For every 100 black women not in jail, there are only 83 black men, a total of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/04/20/upshot/missing-black-men.html?abt=0002&abg=1">1.5 million missing black men</a>, mostly due to prison and early death.The criminal justice system is rife with discrimination, corruption and abuse. Some officers plant evidence or beat confessions out of suspects, while witnesses commit perjury and prosecutors hide exculpatory evidence and strike jurors of color. As a result, there are more than <a href="https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Pages/Exoneration-by-Year.aspx">1,600 known criminal exonerations</a> on record, including 153 wrongfully convicted <a href="http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/innocence-list-those-freed-death-row">death row inmates</a> who established their innocence. An innocent person is released from death row for every nine executions, and an estimated 4.1 percent of death row is innocent.<br /><br />The multitudes of the incarcerated cannot raise or support their families, build their neighborhoods, or become productive members of society. As prison spending competes with education and social welfare programs under state budget constraints, private prison corporations are awash in profits. Further, drug task forces benefit from the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/08/14/the-pentagon-gave-nearly-half-a-billion-dollars-of-military-gear-to-local-law-enforcement-last-year/">military hardware</a>, asset <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/holder-ends-seized-asset-sharing-process-that-split-billions-with-local-state-police/2015/01/16/0e7ca058-99d4-11e4-bcfb-059ec7a93ddc_story.html">seizures, forfeitures</a>, and other trappings of a police state that bolsters mass incarceration. <br /><br />Our country cannot incarcerate its problems away. We must take specific actions to reform its administration of justice. For example, poverty should not serve as an impediment to proper legal representation. Law enforcement—the front line of this system—must transform itself in communities of color, away from the function of slave patrol or occupying army to the role of a positive change agent, accountable to the community. The U.S. can halt its war on drugs and the criminalization of people of color. Emptying and shuttering many prisons will allow us to divert resources to education, infrastructure, and programs of social uplift, and prioritize full employment.<br /><br />In addition, a diverse nation must diversify its legal profession, as we cannot justify a legal community that is <a href="http://www.americanbarfoundation.org/uploads/cms/documents/excerptredfield.pdf">90 percent white</a>. A pipeline for lawyers of color would allow the practicing bar to develop a racial justice lens in order to eradicate institutional racism.<br /><br />Finally, society should hold prosecutors accountable for engaging in misconduct, with the threat of criminal sanctions. No longer can lawmakers and other officials benefit from “tough on crime” draconian sentencing built on the backs of black, brown, and poor folks.<br /><br />The death penalty is the tip of the iceberg that is America’s biased and broken criminal justice system. Death penalty abolition is necessary, but this alone will not eliminate the inherent structural issues within the broader justice system. DALhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04202456579844317543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6309703594747947933.post-53722012487388623472015-06-06T17:04:00.000-04:002015-06-06T17:04:08.421-04:00The LaQuan McDonald killing and the problem of criminal police<b>(<a href="http://thegrio.com/2015/06/05/the-laquan-mcdonald-killing-and-the-problem-of-criminal-police/">theGrio</a>)</b> What happens when the police are the criminals?<br /><br />The city of Chicago settled with the family of <a href="http://thegrio.com/2015/06/04/settlement-chicago-officers-laquan-mcdonald/">LaQuan McDonald</a> for $5 million, in connection with the October 20, 2014, fatal <a href="http://thegrio.com/2013/09/17/african-american-mass-shooters/">shooting</a> of the 17-year-old by a police officer. Johnson was shot 16 times, including nine times in the back, and a total of six police officers have been named in connection with the cover up.<br /><br />Despite news of this settlement, LaQuan’s family will never be made whole, because nothing can replace the loss of one’s child. And we still need to hear more about the <a href="http://www.nbcchicago.com/investigations/laquan-mcdonald-investigation-305105631.html">police deleting 86 minutes</a> of a surveillance video of the incident from a nearby Burger King. The <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-feds-probe-police-shooting-met-20150413-story.html">feds are investigating</a> the killing, as they should, but the investigation, trial and conviction, if any, will not resolve this fundamental question: Why are the police allowed to harbor criminals in their midst?<br /><a name='more'></a><br />The question goes far beyond the usual justifications for these police shootings whenever they occur. We are told that we simply fail to understand how difficult the job of policing really is. And we are always told, like the case of LaQuan McDonald, that the suspect had a knife, a gun or some other weapon and was a threat, and the cop feared for his life. What is apparent is that if being a cop is that difficult for some and too much for them to handle, those individuals should quit the force. Even more obvious is that a certain element of officers should be behind bars as we speak and never should have been issued a badge and a gun in the first place.<br /><br />If this is what the police are all about, then we need to find another way to protect our children and communities, because none of this is working out, at least not for black people.<br /><br />Police departments tend to reinforce a gang mentality where a blue wall of silence allows for the police to commit and cover up crimes. Further, those good officers who choose to speak up against the abuse and corruption place their own lives in danger. They receive death threats from other officers, or their superior officers cannot guarantee their safety. Perhaps when they call for backup, no one will come. Still, there are others, such as the <a href="http://www.blackpolice.org/">National Black Police Association</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ncleoj">National Coalition of Law Enforcement Officers for Justice</a>, <a href="http://www.b-cap.org/bcap_home/">Black Cops Against Police Brutality (B-CAP)</a> and <a href="http://www.leap.cc/">Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP)</a> who speak out against racism and the plague that the war on <a href="http://thegrio.com/2012/04/20/slideshow-the-top-10-potheads-in-hip-hop/#s:bone-thug-jpg-2">drugs</a> has brought to our communities.<br /><br />As for Chicago, the city is no stranger to harboring thugs and gangsters in their police department. After all, this us the police gang that assassinated Black Panther leader <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/chi-chicagodays-pantherraid-story-story.html">Fred Hampton</a> in his bed <a href="http://thegrio.com/2014/12/10/illinois-law-would-make-recording-the-police-a-felony/">in a hail of nearly 100 bullets</a>. This is the police force that allowed Commander <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/06/chicago-torture-reparations_n_7225938.html">Jon Burge</a> and his detectives to torture over 100 <a href="http://thegrio.com/2013/09/25/black-men-take-to-bikes/#s:allen-hill-taking-a-break-from-a-weekend-ride">black men</a> in South Side and West Side stationhouses from the 1970s to the early 1990s — even placing innocent men on death row and leading the city to set up a $5.5 million <a href="http://thegrio.com/2013/08/09/henrietta-lacks-family-deserves-reparations/">reparations</a> fund for torture victims. Meanwhile, the city had spent <a href="http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2015/04/14/aldermen-to-discuss-police-torture-reparations-proposal/">$20 million</a> defending Burge and $100 million to settle the police torture lawsuits.<br /><br />The pattern has been repeated in other cities as well. Police departments allow a core of rotten, violent and corrupt officers to permeate the culture — that <a href="http://www.vox.com/2015/5/28/8661977/race-police-officer">15 percent of who will abuse their authority</a>, beat and shoot pregnant women children, the elderly and handicapped to death and not give it another thought. It should be no surprise that police, who are allegedly sworn to protect and serve, have a huge domestic violence problem that is greater than the <a href="http://thegrio.com/2012/02/05/the-top-10-greatest-black-quarterbacks-of-all-time-slideshow/#s:warren-moon-best-black-quarterbacks-slideshow-jpg">NFL</a>, and <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/09/police-officers-who-hit-their-wives-or-girlfriends/380329/">two to four times higher than the general population</a>. According to the National Center for Women and Policing, two studies have found that <a href="http://womenandpolicing.com/violencefs.asp">at least 40 percent</a> of police officer families live with domestic violence, and the most <a href="http://thegrio.com/2013/08/14/thegrios-2013-fall-music-preview-slideshow/#s:gary-gershoff-getty-images">common</a>form of discipline is counseling. Victims of police officers are particularly vulnerable because police have a gun, know where their victim lives, and know how to game the system to escape punishment or blame the victim. Exactly how can the public expect the police to handle domestic violence situations when police are far more likely to beat their own loved ones? And we certainly know what they will do to a black child on the street they don’t even know.<br /><br />Meanwhile, Cleveland police officer <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/03/us/cleveland-police-officer-michael-brelo-twin-brother-fight/">Michael Brelo</a> was just acquitted for his role in the 2012 shooting deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams. Brelo — who had shot at the black couple 15 times, as part of a police barrage of 137 bullets — was arrested four days after his acquittal for a drunken brawl involving his twin brother. The officer and his brother are now facing assault charges.<br /><br />Bad police are able to get away with <a href="http://thegrio.com/2013/08/30/tamron-hall-talks-deadline-crime-and-opens-up-about-her-sisters-murder/">murder</a> because their criminality is protected, by other officers or superiors, by some elements of the public, and by the media who criminalize blacks as a criminal element and typically give all officers the benefit of the doubt and treat them like heroes. And police, tuned into their traditional role as slave patrol, view themselves as an occupying force and maintain an “us vs. them” mentality. We are “them” just as LaQuan McDonald was “them.” And if we do not turn around the problem of criminal cops, more LaQuans will follow.DALhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04202456579844317543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6309703594747947933.post-53547432998951986842015-06-06T17:02:00.000-04:002015-06-06T17:33:24.866-04:00Baltimore’s deadliest month should be as big of a story as Freddie Gray<div style="border: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<b>(<a href="http://thegrio.com/2015/06/02/baltimores-deadliest-month-freddie-gray/">theGrio</a>)</b> The city of Baltimore has reached a tragic milestone, as May became its <a href="http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/blog/bs-md-ci-shootings-20150531-story.html">deadliest month in over four decades</a>. Last month, Baltimore experienced 43 homicides, and the city has not seen these numbers since December 1971, when <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/31/baltimore-martin-o-malley-crime">44 were killed</a>. This news should receive as much attention as the police killing of Freddie Gray, correct? If not, then why not?<br />
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The news comes as former Maryland Governor <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/election/2015/05/30/3664429/omalley-baltimore/">Martin O’Malley</a>, also former mayor of Baltimore from 1999 to 2007, announced his bid for the Democratic presidential candidacy. In a perfect example of bad timing, O’Malley has come under fire by community activists for installing “zero tolerance” policing and “broken windows” policies as mayor, as well as a data-tracking management tool called CityStat, all of which facilitated a sharp rise in arrests of black people during his tenure.</div>
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On Saturday, activists staged a die-in at Federal Hill Park — where O’Malley announced his candidacy — blaming O’Malley’s policies for the death of Freddie Gray, 25, the black man who was killed by a severed spine while in police custody on April 12, 2015. As the former mayor takes credit for a <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2015/0504/Baltimore-violence-and-Martin-O-Malley-s-mayoral-legacy">drop in crime</a> in the city, critics question the effectiveness of the former mayor’s tough-on-<a href="http://thegrio.com/2012/04/20/slideshow-the-top-10-potheads-in-hip-hop/#s:bone-thug-jpg-2">drugs</a> and stop-and-frisk policies that targeted minor, low level offenses. After all, crime dropped elsewhere around the nation, including cities that did not implement such hardline measures.<br />
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Meanwhile, June 2 is National Gun Violence Awareness Day, in honor of <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/06/01/nra-june-2-national-gun-violence-awareness-day/203828">Hadiya Pendleton</a>, 15, a Chicago honor student who was shot in the back on January 29, 2013. June 2 would have been her 18th birthday. <a href="http://everytown.org/">Everytown for Gun Safety</a>, the gun control nonprofit organization, has asked people to<a href="http://chicago.suntimes.com/chicago-politics/7/71/643596/hadiya-pendelton-wear-orange-campaign">wear orange</a> that day to honor the “88 Americans whose lives are cut short by gun violence every day — and the countless survivors whose lives are forever altered by shootings each year.” Orange is the color hunters wear to announce to other hunters they are not targets. And yet, America is a killing field, where nearly <a href="http://www.bradycampaign.org/sites/default/files/GunDeathandInjuryStatSheet3YearAverageFINAL.pdf">32,000 people</a> — including over 2,800 children — die from gun violence each year. The U.S. is the world leader in gun homicides because it is by far the most heavily-armed nation, with as many as <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/06/04/a-minority-of-americans-own-guns-but-just-how-many-is-unclear/">270 to 310 million guns</a> — one for every American.<br />
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This national gun problem is a uniquely American phenomenon, and black communities beyond Baltimore are catching more than their fair share of bullets.<br />
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As <a href="http://robinkelly.house.gov/">Congresswoman Robin Kelly</a> (D-Ill.) noted in her 2014 <a href="http://robinkelly.house.gov/sites/robinkelly.house.gov/files/wysiwyg_uploaded/KellyReport_1.pdf">report</a> Gun Violence In America, while African-Americans are 13 percent of the U.S. population, they are 55 percent of gun <a href="http://thegrio.com/2013/08/30/tamron-hall-talks-deadline-crime-and-opens-up-about-her-sisters-murder/">murder</a> victims. Most white firearm deaths are suicides. Easy access to guns, and little attention paid to socioeconomic or mental health issues, allows minor problems to escalate into deadly scenarios. And this country, unlike others, fails to place restrictions on gun use that would prevent this senseless killing.<br />
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“If New Orleans were a country, it would be the second deadliest nation in the world, with a gun murder rate of 62.1 per 100,000 citizens. Detroit’s murder rate mirrors El Salvador,” the report said. “Chicago is a carbon copy of Guyana. Washington, D.C., our nation’s capital, has a higher gun homicide rate than Brazil — a nation that has long experienced high crime rates stemming from narcotics trafficking and other violent gang activity.”<br />
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In a country where black life is devalued and discounted on a regular basis, rampant gun homicides in places such as Baltimore receive little attention. Yet, this loss of black life to guns is a pressing human rights issue linked to America’s legacy of racial discrimination and bias.<br />
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According to a <a href="http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CERD/Shared%20Documents/USA/INT_CERD_NGO_USA_17803_E.pdf">report</a> on African-American gun violence victimization submitted last year to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (or CERD, an international treaty), the U.S. is not upholding its duty to protect life under international law, particularly as it concerns black people.<br />
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The report, prepared by the Violence Policy Center, Amnesty International and others, argues that gun violence disproportionately impacts people of color through hate crimes; implicit racial bias as in the case of Stand Your Ground laws; and predominantly black areas kept poor by racial discrimination, where blacks become both victims and perpetrators. Further, the report also notes that despite the disproportionate gun deaths and injuries among blacks — and overwhelming public support for gun control legislation — the U.S. Congress has failed to act but rather has enacted legislation protecting the proliferation of illegal guns. This has been due to the power of the NRA:<br />
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The National Rifle Association (NRA) represents a powerful political lobby that has received an estimated tens of millions of dollars from the firearms industry to support political lobbying and firearm marketing efforts. This organization has a documented history, spanning many years, of multiple board members issuing either overt racial slurs or racially insensitive comments without consequence to their position in the organization…..<br />The NRA uses its financial capital to influence politicians at the state and federal levels of government to support or oppose specific pieces of legislation despite the negative consequences associated with it.</blockquote>
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In the 2012 election, the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/01/30/how-the-nra-spent-32-million-in-2012/">NRA</a> spent $32 million on lobbying. Meanwhile, gun violence reduces black male life expectancy by one year (as opposed to five months for whites), and <a href="http://thegrio.com/2013/09/25/black-men-take-to-bikes/#s:allen-hill-taking-a-break-from-a-weekend-ride">black men</a> are 7 times more likely to die from firearm homicide than white men.<br />
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Moreover, the leading cause of death among black teens is gun homicide. Of the more than 116,000 children killed by guns since 1979, over 44,000 were black — more than 13 times the total number of recorded lynchings of black people between 1882 and 1968.<br />
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What we are witnessing is an epidemic of violence, of genocide. But do we have the will to end it?DALhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04202456579844317543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6309703594747947933.post-64986977795751273592015-06-06T16:58:00.002-04:002015-06-06T16:59:13.348-04:00Condemning police violence doesn’t mean we don’t care about other violence<b>(<a href="http://thegrio.com/2015/05/27/violence-black-america-lives-matter/">theGrio</a>)</b> We pay lots of attention when police kill unarmed black people — and we should — but do we care as much when black people kill each other?<br />
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We do, and it is ok to care about both at the same time.<br />
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In a damning report on the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/12/05/the-dojs-jaw-dropping-report-about-the-cleveland-police-department/">Cleveland Police Department</a>, the U.S. Department of Justice takes that city’s police force to task for its excessive, unnecessary and unreasonable use of deadly force. The cops in Cleveland, according to the DOJ, shoot at people who pose no threat, brutalize unarmed people and misuse stun guns. Meanwhile, the CPD has agreed to accept <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/27/us/cleveland-police-accept-use-of-force-rules-in-justice-dept-deal.html">federal oversight and limits</a> on how and when their officers are able to use force.<br />
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That is serious business and certainly a matter which demands our attention, whether in Cleveland, or Baltimore or Ferguson, or any other of a countless number of cities across America.<br />
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And yet, at the same time, there is a violence of a different type taking place in the community, and we need to address it. For example, in <a href="http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2015/05/26/12-killed-43-wounded-in-memorial-day-weekend-shootings/">Chicago</a>, 12 people were killed and 43 wounded, including a 4-year-old girl, during the Memorial Day weekend. This comes as Baltimore — the scene for protests and unrest of late, due to the police killing of Freddie Gray — has experienced a deadly month with 35 homicides, 108 so far this year.<br />
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Someone, somewhere is asking why black folks don’t rally in the streets when members of the community kill each other and the police are not involved. It is a fair and reasonable question.<br />
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Before we go any further, let us first dismiss those voices from Fox News and similar places who will bring up so-called “black-on-black” violence because they want to change the subject and make you forget that police brutality is a chronic problem in communities of color. They want to pretend we are not monitored, harassed and hunted down, dismiss our pain and our fear for our children’s safety and sweep the crisis of police violence and racist policies under the rug. Or, they wish to downplay the violence occurring in the white community and act as if black people are inherently violent or some special case. So, let’s not even go down that path.<br />
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But let’s get back to the violence in the black community that is not the fault of the cops but due to our own actions. Certainly, there are many who have sounded the alarm on this epidemic, of babies killing babies, of the community turning on itself, of honor students, star athletes and pregnant mothers snuffed out by a bullet, taken from us in the prime of their life, way too soon.<br />
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Further, we should keep in mind that this is a public health crisis. Homicide is the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/10/leading-cause-of-death-young-black-men-homicide_n_3049209.html">leading cause of death</a> for young <a href="http://thegrio.com/2013/09/25/black-men-take-to-bikes/#s:allen-hill-taking-a-break-from-a-weekend-ride">black men</a> — more than car accidents, diseases and suicide combined, and at a rate six times higher than whites. Let that sink in for a minute.<br />
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Those who would suggest we cannot focus simultaneously on police violence and violence from the kid across the way are presenting false choices. In a way, they are two sides of the same coin, all part of a vicious cycle.<br />
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Nothing should stop the community from speaking out and demanding action in order to rein in police abuse, whether it means the federal government investigating every last police department in the land of the free, or setting uniform guidelines for law enforcement across the country.<br />
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Yet, if #BlackLivesMatter, should it matter to you who does the killing or how those lives are lost? Should it matter if the gang wears blue and carries a badge? We must get a hold of the fact that there are no gun manufacturers in the black community, and still it seems some black children can access a weapon more readily than they can find a good education or a nutritious meal.<br />
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The NRA and its wholly-owned subsidiary known as Congress, or any given state house, are playing both sides of the fence. And they care little about who gets killed so long as they are moving their product and their checks come in, and the Second Amendment has nothing to do with it. They enact laws making it easier for whites to kill blacks in the name of self-defense (Stand Your Ground) and for people to carry guns in public places (Open Carry), including in parks, schools and churches. And they maintain their poker face when children are slaughtered, as in the case of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass <a href="http://thegrio.com/2013/09/17/african-american-mass-shooters/">shooting</a>, when a gunman killed 20 children and 6 adults in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012.<br />
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If politicians and their masters in the gun lobby react with indifference when children in suburbia are murdered, one can imagine their reaction (or lack thereof) when gun violence tears apart the inner city. But if the black community does not care when black people are murdered from within, why should anyone else? And doesn’t homicide in the black community just make the racist abusive cop’s job that much easier?<br />
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In a nation plagued by racism, poverty and violence, black folks are dealing with a number of issues, including internalized racism, trauma, stress, deprivation, lack of self-esteem and lack of opportunity. Just to add to that, black families have been decimated due to the war on <a href="http://thegrio.com/2012/04/20/slideshow-the-top-10-potheads-in-hip-hop/#s:bone-thug-jpg-2">drugs</a> and mass incarceration. Going after bad cops alone will not overcome these challenges.<br />
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So yes, it is OK for black America to condemn both police violence and teen and gang violence at the same time.<br />
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It is also very necessary.DALhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04202456579844317543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6309703594747947933.post-89662658507715081482015-05-22T14:37:00.001-04:002015-05-22T14:37:30.713-04:00Philadelphia Congregations Lead in the Struggle for Social Justice<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>(<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-a-love/philadelphia-congregation_b_7294440.html?utm_hp_ref=black-voices">HuffPost Black Voices</a>) </b>The recent events in Baltimore -- including the killing of Freddie Gray in police custody, and the protests and unrest that followed -- point to the need for community-based movement building. Baltimore, like many other cities in America, is hurting, and black people in particular are feeling the pain.<br /><br />Meanwhile, a little over 100 miles to the north, Philadelphia -- the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection -- is offering a model for communities of faith to seek justice and transform the place in which they live. <a href="http://www.powerphiladelphia.org/">POWER</a> (Philadelphians Organized to Witness Power and Rebuild) is a grassroots interfaith coalition of congregations across the city. Part of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, they are dedicated to bringing people together around social justice issues such as jobs with a living wage, fair funding and democratic, local control of the public schools and an end to police practices such as "stop and frisk."<br /><br />POWER is an example of the type of coalition building that cities need.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />Philadelphia has a long history as an incubator for social justice activism, from the abolition of slavery to the Black Power movement. Moreover, with its high unemployment and poverty, low wages, and high incarceration rate, the city could become another Baltimore. After New York and Chicago, Philadelphia has the third highest number of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/04/20/upshot/missing-black-men.html">missing black men</a> in America (36,000) due to the incarceration of black men, high mortality, gun violence and other factors. Baltimore is in sixth place with 19,000 missing black men.<br /><br />Moreover, while Baltimore has been in the spotlight these days over cases of police brutality, most recently the Freddie Gray case, Philly has its own police problem. A<a href="http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-releases-report-philadelphia-police-departments-use-deadly-force">report</a> from the U.S. Department of Justice found "serious deficiencies" with police use of force, including With 394 police shootings since 2007 -- 15 percent involving unarmed suspects -- Philadelphia surpasses New York, a city five times its size. Yet, despite a drop in crime, shootings involving officers have climbed.<br /><br />The report also faulted the police for failing to properly train officers in defusing tensions and handling violent situations, and seeking non-lethal means of resolving conflict. Further, identifying the public mistrust of the police, the Department of Justice recommends community oversight over law enforcement, an independent reviews of police shootings, and more consistent reviews by police when such incidents occur.<br /><br />In December, Philadelphia had its own controversial killing of an unarmed black man. Brandon Tate-Brown, 26, was shot in the back of the head by police after being stopped for driving with his headlights off. The officers were <a href="http://6abc.com/news/officers-not-charged-in-fatal-shooting-of-brandon-tate-brown/564691/">not charged for wrongdoing</a>, and Tanya Brown-Dickerson, the mother of the victim seeks justice through a <a href="http://6abc.com/news/suit-philadelphia-cops-planted-evidence-to-justify-shooting/686053/">wrongful death lawsuit</a>.<br /><br />"For far too long, police departments around the country have been, sort of, you know, you can't touch them. We need the police. And we have created a system where the police officers are above the law," said <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/can-police-reform-happen-philadelphia/">Bishop Dwayne Royster</a>, Executive Director of POWER. "And we can no longer allow them to do that. They have to operate within the law, just as much as we expect every other citizen to operate within the law."<br /><br />Bishop Royster said he was concerned about the report on the Philadelphia Police Department. He told PBS News Hour that lethal force always appeared to be the "best choice" for law enforcement, as opposed to finding other ways to work with those in the community who commit crime.<br /><br />No stranger to police brutality, Philly has been marred by years of police corruption and racial violence. May 13 marked the 30th anniversary of the MOVE bombing, when the Philadelphia police dropped a bomb on the home of MOVE, a black power group. Eleven people, including five children, were killed, and an entire block of 61 homes was destroyed by fire. Yet, police abuse is merely the tip of the iceberg of a system of racial oppression, of economic exploitation and deprivation in Philadelphia and elsewhere. The seeming intractability of these problems requires community mobilization in order to overcome them, and transform society in the process.<br /><br />"POWER is composed of people of faith committed to the work of bringing about justice here and now, in our city and our region. By strengthening and mobilizing our networks of relationships, POWER seeks to exercise power in the public arena so that the needs and priorities of all Philadelphians are reflected in the systems and policies that shape our city," said Rabbi Shawn Zevit of <a href="https://mishkan.org/">Mishkan Shalom</a>, a multiracial, progressive congregation in Philadelphia and an active member of POWER.<br /><br />"As people of faith, we must exercise our power to help lead this transformation. Side by side with fighting for a living wage and full fair funding for our schools, the issue of ending stop and frisk police tactics as well as racial injustice towards people of color, Black Americans in particular- especially through mass incarceration, is a campaign we have taken on," Rabbi Zevit added. "As a Jewish congregation, dealing with racism and injustice is something we know well from our Torah and tradition, as well as our history and must be involved with ending in our current reality."<br /><br />As Martin Luther King urged, "we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered." Dr. King knew these evils are interrelated. Today, relying upon their religious traditions, congregations are fighting these triple evils, seeking justice and transforming their community.DALhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04202456579844317543noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6309703594747947933.post-66131895611453173172015-05-22T14:30:00.000-04:002015-05-22T14:30:53.989-04:00Black artist will burn, bury the Confederate flag across the South on Memorial Day<b>(<a href="http://thegrio.com/2015/05/22/artist-john-sims-burn-bury-confederate-flag/">theGrio</a>) </b>Can you think of a better way for a black man to spend Memorial Day than to burn a Confederate flag?<br /><br />As was reported in the <a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-confederate-flag-burn-orlando-20150520-story.html">Orlando Sentinel</a>, an artist will do exactly that, with plans to make it happen in all the states throughout the former Confederacy.<br /><br /><a href="http://johnsimsprojects.com/flagsnew/">John Sims</a>, an artist from Sarasota, Florida, is honoring the constitutional right of self-expression by staging burnings and burials of the Rebel flag, that troublesome symbol of the Old South that many, particularly African-Americans, associate with slavery, white supremacy and state-sponsored terrorism and lynchings.<br /><br />“We are in America, and people have the right to fly whatever flag [they want],” Sims said. “And I have the right to bury whatever flag, and to burn whatever flag.”<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />Sims noted that the Dixie flag, which the South flew during the Civil War, is associated with many toxic memories of the American experience, especially from the black perspective. “There’s a notion of ‘Southern Heritage’ and who owns [that], but a very important part of Southern culture is the African-American experience.… The Confederate flag is a flag of terror from its use by the Klan in the ’20s to the anti-civil-rights movement in the ’50s and ’60s,” Sims said.<br /><br />“The flag is almost too toxic to handle, and for those who do, I’m suspicious of their engagement. Are you in denial?”<br /><br />Sims — who in 2004 painted the Confederate flag <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/florida-artist-announces-plan-to-burn-confederate-flag-of-terror-on-memorial-day/#.VV522618zdo.yahoomail">red, black and green</a> to resemble the Black Liberation or Pan-African flag — plans to stage the “belated burial” and cremation of the Dixie flag with simultaneous coordinated ceremonies in the 10 former secessionist states, and Kentucky and Missouri.<br /><br />To be sure, a number of people will disapprove of Sims’ form of artistic expression, but their own sentiments in support of that flag are misplaced and indefensible.<br /><br />Although the Confederacy lost the Civil War and surrendered 150 years ago, some white folks refuse to let it go. Still fighting a war to keep blacks down and poor whites in poverty — because the slave system did not need white labor — they simply cannot escape the nineteenth century. As Euan Hague wrote in <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/04/civil-war-american-south-still-loves-confederacy-116771.html#.VV6JmE_BzGc">Politico Magazine</a> in April, the passion for the Confederate flag has not ended for many Americans. Neo-Confederate sentiments seemed to be in relative hiding until the 1980s and 1990s.<br /><br />Today, the symbols of the Confederacy are all around us. The state of Texas just went before the U.S. Supreme Court and defended the placement of the flag on Texas license plates.<br /><br />Recently, students at the University of Texas at Austin passed a resolution to remove a statue of Confederate President <a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20150508-editorial-time-to-place-confederate-statues-in-context.ece">Jefferson Davis</a> from its prominent spot on campus. And at the <a href="http://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2015/02/letter-white-supremacists-legacy-persists">University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill</a>, <a href="https://www.studentsforedreform.org/">Students for Education Reform</a> are demanding the renaming of<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HsUbTM4OMY&feature=youtu.be">Saunders Hall</a> — a university building which honors Confederate colonel and KKK Grand Dragon William Saunders — to Hurston Hall, in honor of Zora Neal Hurston, the first black UNC student prior to integration.<br /><br />And in Alabama, <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/alabama-democrat-receives-death-threats-for-removing-confederate-flags-from-public-propety/">Myron Penn</a> (D-AL), a prominent black attorney and former State Senator and County Commissioner, received death threats after removing Confederate flags from soldiers’ graves in the Union Springs cemetery, which is city property. Penn, who views the flag as a symbol of oppression, was condemned by some pro-Confederate whites for “disrespecting history” and, in their view, breaking the law. The Sons of Confederate Veterans is considering legal action.<br /><br />Although defenders of that flag may want to convince us that it has nothing to do with slavery, or segregation, or hating black people, we know better. After all, aside from serving as an official flag of the Confederacy and a symbol used by groups such as the Klan, the Confederate battle flag played a prominent role against the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. After the Brown v. Board of Education school desegregation decision, states such as Georgia reintroduced the flag in protest, while other states incorporated the secessionist symbol into the state flag, and others flew the battle flag on top of the state house. After Georgia changed its flag in 2003, Mississippi remains the only state flag to incorporate the Confederate emblem.<br /><br />Meanwhile, last year, South Carolina Gov. <a href="http://www.mediaite.com/online/sc-governor-defends-flying-confederate-flag-over-state-capitol/">Nikki Haley</a> — who apparently thinks racism is over because she is Indian-American and she appointed an African-American senator — dismissed calls to retire the flag that flies at the state house. “I can honestly say I have not had one conversation with a single CEO about the Confederate flag,” Haley said.<br /><br />A few months ago, I was traveling on the highway through Virginia with my family, when I saw the largest Confederate flag of all time flying high near the side of the road, in the distance. I had to explain to my five-year old son, in a manner he could understand, what that flag was and the evil that it represents for black people.<br /><br />When you celebrate Memorial Day, raise a fist for John Sims. Thank him for speaking his mind and expressing his beliefs. The Confederate flag is a symbol of white supremacy and the years of suffering of black people, and that lingering hope of some that we will return to toiling in the cotton fields, and swinging from the poplar trees if we get too uppity. This is the N-word on a pole. If America had its own version of the Nazi swastika, this would be it.DALhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04202456579844317543noreply@blogger.com0