The Golden State Can’t Seem to See the Light
“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
So begins the 14th amendment of the United States Constitution.
Yet 52% of California’s population denied 48% their basic rights. Proposition 8 stands after the California Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that the voter-approved measure limiting marriage as being between a man and a woman is constitutional.
In a 6-1 vote the lone voice of reason came from Justice Carlos Moreno stating “(a) majority should not be allowed to deprive a minority of fundamental rights” Read more
Harvard Embroiled in Racist Controversy
Harvard University is considered by many to be the best university in the United States, but that doesn’t make it the most advanced. That was on full display last week when Harvard became the epicenter for a high profile racism case. Chanequa Campbell, an African American student, was kicked out of her dorm and told she was not allowed to graduate. On May 18th a visitor to Campbell’s building was shot and killed during a confrontation with another visitor. One week later, Campbell who wasn’t even in the dorm at the time and has no connection with the victim and a vague connection with the suspect, was thrown out of her dorm. The only explanation for her eviction is the color of her skin.
Sadly, this is one of many racist/racial profiling incidents to occur at Harvard over the past few years.
In a report last month, a panel convened to look into whether campus police unfairly stopped black people because of their race and said more work needed to be done to create a welcoming environment at the school, where only 11 percent of students are black.
In 2004, police stopped and questioned a prominent black Harvard professor who apparently matched the description of a robbery suspect. Then, in 2007, police responding to noise complaints asked leaders of black student groups holding a field day on campus to show their Harvard IDs. Read more
Vernon Briggs’ Little White Anti-Immigrant Lies
Vernon Briggs
Unless I’m just coming in from a night out on the town I’ve always detested early mornings. There just seems to be something unnatural about awakening before the sun starts to rise. It makes me feel as if I’m missing some key piece of data that helps to inform my day. That’s how I felt this Thursday morning when I awoke at 4:30 a.m., but as you will see for a completely different reason.
On Wednesday I had received a call from National Public Radio (NPR) asking if I would be willing to participate on one of its daily news shows, Tell Me More with Michel Martin. I love the opportunity to dialogue even at 6:30 in the morning, and the subject was African Americans and immigration so I readily agreed. Read more
Bolivia’s Neo-Nazis: Imbedded in the Ballot and Bullet
While Bolivia’s diverse neo-Nazi and right-wing movements have a long and fruitful history in this majority-indigenous nation, the recent assassination attempt of President Evo Morales shows a new level of paranoia and extremism rising.
At dawn on April 16 an elite police unit, flown in from La Paz, stormed rooms at the Hotel Las Americas in the Department of Santa Cruz killing three men – Eduardo Rózsa Flores, Arpád Magyarosi and Michael Dwyer- who were planning several assassination attempts. It appears their targets included President Morales (the countries first indigenous president) and Vice President Alvaro García Linera. Rózsa Flores, the ringleader, was born in Santa Cruz of Hungarian-Bolivian parents. Flores, a supporter of the right-wing Roman Catholic organization Opus Dei, founded the neo-fascist First International Platoon to fight for the far right in Croatia during the Balkan Wars. Read more
Got Milk? Not Without Immigrants
Behind the placid, rural scenes of “happy” Holstein cows grazing on lush hillsides lies the raw reality of an industrialized dairy system that increasingly relies on hired immigrant labor to provide milk to the nation.
California, the nation’s largest dairy production state, has long relied on immigrant labor to milk its industrial cows arrayed primarily in massive factory operations. A similar immigrant labor structure now pervades milking operations in Wisconsin, “the dairy state,” and in Vermont, where labor traditionally provided by farm families themselves is rapidly and dramatically disappearing. The University of Wisconsin Program on Agricultural Technology Studies estimates that over 40 percent of that state’s 12,500+ workforce of hired dairy employees is comprised of immigrants, primarily from Mexico. Read more
Where are the Names?
Following a nine-year investigation and a devastating 2,600-page report, Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin slammed Irish Catholic orders Monday for concealing their culpability in decades of child abuse. Archbishop Martin is a veteran Vatican diplomat who also believes more money, a considerable amount, needs to be provided to compensate the victims of this abuse.
The report, which was released last week, details abuse in church-run industrial schools in Ireland from the 1930s to the 1990s. Yes, that’s right. A 60-year gap, in which these crimes were not just committed, but covered up. And even more shocking, the findings won’t be used for criminal prosecutions, due in part to the Christian Brothers having successfully sued the commission in 2004. No real identities, either of victim or perpetrator, even appear in the final document. And so the cover up continues. Read more
Memorial Day Is About Honoring the Righteous
Memorial Day, a chance for families and friends to camp, drag out the grill, and take that long anticipated fishing trip. For others the holiday is an opportunity to spend an additional night on the town clubbing and Monday buying out the Mall. For most of us Memorial Day holiday is simply a rare and deserved 3-day respite from work that occurs between the long winter and Labor Day in September.
At least that’s how I used to see Memorial Day up until two years ago. Back in 2007 I found myself in Portland, Oregon browsing for books at Powell’s Books. It’s one of those bookstores where, if you are a book lover, you don’t dare take your credit card. I was on the hunt for a book on the Abolitionist Movement in the United States. I had been making the argument in presentations that those working both to secure immigrant rights in the United States and defeat the anti-immigrant movement were the descendants of the early Abolition Movement. Read more
10 Reasons Why Chuck Norris is Not My Hero:
1. He’s a homophobe: opposing protection of LGBT people under the new Hate-Crimes Act.
2. He promotes the use of the Bible and advocates for official prayers in public school.
3. He thinks Texas should secede from the nation and that he should be the president. Ha!
4. He supported Prop 8; California’s ban on same-sex marriage.
5. In his fervent support of Prop 8 he suggested that the LGBT community blame people of color.
6. He said recently that there may need to be a second revolution in response to increasing left leaning politics, and that “We the people have the authority according to America’s Declaration of Independence”.
7. He refers to creationism as intelligent design (gag), and has helped put creationism into the curriculum of 443 public school districts.
8. He invokes Thomas Jefferson’s name in supporting creationism in schools.
9. # 7 on his martial arts code of honor is “I will maintain an attitude of open-mindedness.”
10. He wrote a moronic letter to President Obama (in which he urged him to turn away from his pro-choice stance), entitled “Obama, now that you work for me …”
Just ten reasons why Chuck Norris is lame.
Can Sheriff Joe Be Stopped?
Sheriff Joe would like the public to believe that the thousands of inmates on hunger strike for the last three weeks are just complaining about food. He would like us to think that the biggest issue for detainees is rotting baloney. If only that were a good enough reason for over 1,500 individuals to go without food for days on end. Common sense and the human rights activists who have been visiting detainees tell us otherwise.
The real stories coming out of Arpaio’s four jails speak of rampant abuse and a severe lack of medical attention. The sheriff is infamous for erecting outdoor tents to house prisoners in scorching Arizona temperatures, forcing them to wear pink underwear and serving rotten food. Outside of his prisons he is known for racial profiling and terrorizing Latino neighborhoods with immigration sweeps. Read more
Blog Highlight: Tabatha on Rape, Racism, and Recent Protests
Originally posted May 17, 2009 on Opposing Bigotry
On May 15th, a racist, anti-immigrant group going under the name Oregonian’s For Immigration Reform (OFIR) hosted a demonstration outside a Wendy’s restaurant in Milwaukee, Oregon. In response to media reports of the rape of one worker at the hands of another at the restaurant, OFIR seized on the immigration status of the accused rapist as the defining factor, protesting the alleged failure of the restaurant to investigate the immigration status of their employees. Do OFIR’s calls actually have anything to do with an interest in women’s rights, worker safety, or justice?
The woman’s mother reported that she was previously abused by her attacker, but didn’t report it.
This brings the spotlight to an often ignored issue (violence against women), framing it in well within a long history veiling racist attacks in the guise of defending white women. This is bad for women and immigrants, pulling focus off the real issues at hand, and pitting oppressed people against each other. Read more
Living a Life, Excited to Evolve
At the heart of any civilization you will find their society’s calendar. All life is lived in reference to those twelve magical months collectively know as the Gregorian calendar. At least that’s the case for most of us. The funny thing is that the majority of people never question why it was ever put into play. We’ve never had any reason to.
That makes our calendar the most dogmatic force in all the world.
As 2012 approaches, and the Business attempts to cash in on our impending doom, it may serve well to do some research yourself. You’ll find that the Mayan calendar is not simply a countdown to catastrophe. The Mayan calendar charts the telescoping nature of evolution. According to Mayan cosmology, what feels to us like time speeding up is actually creation speeding up. More and more is happening in less and less time. Read more
Reborn in San Antonio, TX
I am told that as of Monday, May 11th I am now officially a community organizer. In light of this REBIRTH, I choose to step forward and represent myself in this new world. Thus, I am excited to join the inspiring project, Imagine 2050.
This past Monday, May 11th marked a Mayan calendar event known as the Rebirth Celebration. My band brothers and I had been anticipating the moment as a distinct time for personal growth and important change. I can still feel the effects racing in my blood. When we stumbled upon the information months back, we looked forward to whatever the day might bring. Read more
Fueled by Racism, Opposition to Immigrants is Spanning the Globe
Steeped in fear and contempt and fueled by racism, fierce opposition to migrants, immigrants, and refugees is growing across the globe and is likely to worsen as economic and political turmoil and environmental degradation uproots peoples.
Greece has taken dramatic steps to turn away or detain tens of thousands of refugees and asylum seekers from Iraq, Somalia, Sudan and other war-torn nations. Australia continues its harsh policies aimed at turning away boats packed with refugees. Italy has earned criticism by the UN for its forcible return of Libyans seeking asylum, even as its parliament mapped a path to steep restrictions and fines for undocumented immigrants, and authorization of “citizen patrols” to rein them in. Russia’s ultra-nationalist Movement Against Illegal Immigration is strong in spite of the recent imprisonment of its leader. And the Dutch Freedom Party PVV and its vile anti-Muslim fervor is gaining hold in The Netherlands. The list is long and sobering, particularly as governments bow to the winds of racism in crafting immigration policies. Read more
Social Networking: A Place for Hate?
by Nora Flanagan
In 2000, HBO produced a documentary chronicling the capitalization of the internet’s exponential growth by hate groups in America. Hate.com, narrated by Southern Poverty Law Center founder Morris Dees, exposed hate groups’ online efforts to the wide audience provided by the piece’s frequent broadcast on HBO. Millions of youth, parents, educators and activists gained a better understanding of the power of the web as a recruiting tool for organized bigots.
Since Hate.com’s 2000 release, internet use has continued to evolve, and hate groups have not been far behind. The explosion of the social networking capacity of the web, often referred to as ‘Web 2.0,’ has been accompanied by organized attempts to expand and recruit for almost every documented hate group in America. In other words, white supremacists are on MySpace, and more than likely, they’d like to be your friend. Read more
Moscow: Where’s the Democracy?
In an almost inconceivable blow to civil and human rights, riot police violently broke up several gay rights demonstrations in Moscow on Saturday. In doing so, President Medvedev, Prime Minister Putin and Mayor Luzhkov confirmed the worst suspicions about Russian “democracy” by arresting the participants and not allowing LGBT people to assemble without state repression.
City officials openly said they would not tolerate rallies supporting the rights of gays and lesbians and barred Saturday’s rally, saying it was “morally wrong” City Hall spokesman Sergei Tsoi was quoted by the ITAR-Tass news agency as saying, “(Gay pride events) not only destroy moral foundations of our society, but also purposefully provoke disturbances that will threaten the lives and safety of Moscow residents and guests,” Read more
Ohio’s Not-Exactly-Arbitrary Death Penalty
This past Saturday I hosted a panel called “Perspectives on Ohio’s Death Penalty” at The Ohio State University. Here’re some takeaways.
Don’t kill a white person, don’t kill a woman, and definitely, absolutely don’t kill a white woman if you want to escape the death penalty.
Stay away from the South, especially Texas, and stick to the stretch of states extending from Michigan west to North Dakota – no death penalty in those states.
In Ohio, if you’re indicted on a capital charge in Hamilton County you’re five times more likely to end up on death row than if you’re indicted in Cuyahoga County.
And if you find yourself before a 3-judge panel at the 6th circuit court of appeals, the main review panel for death sentences in Ohio, pray that you draw at least two judges appointed by a Democrat. Read more
Is Stupid the New Smart?
by Amy Spicer
As I channel surfed the other night I was once again visually assaulted with mind numbingly bad “reality” shows. But I had to take pause when coming across one particularly vile show. Take a female group of cast-offs from other reality shows, put them together in a house, provide copious amounts of alcohol, shake well and see what happens. All the while claiming to be a show about “making them more beautiful on the inside”
The upcoming clips included a trip the women take to the 9th ward in ravaged New Orleans to see the devastation, perhaps gain some perspective and try to make a difference. Cut to next clip: women literally falling down drunk yelling unintelligible bleeped out profanities and throwing random objects…at each other. And scene. Read more
The Immigrant Woman Story
Women as immigrants are just beginning to be recognized, but that hasn’t lessened the dual hardships of womanhood and immigration. Whether it be through detention, poverty, domestic abuse, or discrimination; the challenges many American women face are compounded for immigrant women. A recent poll released by New America Media dives deep into the real lives and impact of immigrant women on this nation:
The story of migration, as it has traditionally been told, has been a masculine epic. But in the latter part of the 20th century, as women began immigrating to America in ever-growing numbers, the migration story became increasing a woman’s tale as well. Women are now on the move, as much as men. But their narrative is different from that of their male predecessors -– they are migrating not as lone individuals but as members, even heads, of families, determined to keep family bonds intact even as they travel great distances and adapt to new cultures.
Until the last half of the 20th century, there was a great gender imbalance, with males predominating in the migrant stream. Today, this balance has shifted to the point that women actually comprise half or more of the immigrants entering this country. Equally dramatic, women now make up more than half of the migrant population worldwide.
While immigrant women are more proactive about gaining citizenship and civic engagement in general, they are also more vulnerable to an immigration and detention system that leaves little room for humanity and is rife with abuse. Read more
New Study Finds Link Between Racism and Mental Health Problems
A recently published study in the May edition of the American Journal of Public Health, has found that children who are the victims of racism are more likely to develop mental health problems as adults. The study examined over 5000 5th graders from Birmingham, Alabama, Los Angeles, California, and Houston, Texas. The study found that 5th graders who are racially abused are highly likely to develop symptoms of depression.
The study does not provide a direct link between racism and emotional problems because the study did not follow the 5th graders over time, but the study’s co-authors are adamant that the link is no coincidence. Tumani Coker, a UCLA pediatrician and RAND Corp researcher, stated that this was the first study of its kind to ever be conducted. Her co-author, Mark Schuster, a Harvard pediatrician stated, “It’s possible that prejudice harms children’s mental health, but it is also possible that troubled kids prompt more discriminatory remarks from peers or that children with emotional problems perceive more bias.” Read more
Another Story from New Haven: Project Restart
By Andrew Grant-Thomas
Some readers will know about Ricci v. DeStefano, a case filed by white firefighters in New Haven, CT, my home town, after the City invalidated the results of a test that would have promoted 15 whites, one Latino and no African Americans. The US Supreme Court recently heard the case.
Last week I read a less-ballyhooed story out of New Haven about a program called Project Restart. The idea is that, rather than perpetuate the sweep-lockup-release cycle that ensnares so many petty drug offenders, the police instead would spend more time targeting high-level dealers while offering lower-level ones sentencing alternatives like school or job training.
The story focuses on Raheem Vaughn, a 19 year-old African American whose criminal record consists of a charge for possession of a mini-ziplock bag of marijuana and a bust for selling $50 worth of the stuff. That record, according to Assistant Police Chief Pete Reichard, leaves him too “hardened” to qualify for the sentencing alternatives.
Seriously? Read more
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