Minutemen and Klansmen

Written by Guest Blogger

By Joel Olson

I recently reviewed The Rise of the Ku Klux Klan by Rory McVeigh (University of Minnesota Press 2009) for the academic journal American Studies. The book is a little dry, but there were some notable lessons in it for understanding anti-immigration organizations today.

The Klan originated after the Civil War to restore white supremacy by terrorizing ex-slaves and antislavery whites during Reconstruction. This generation of the Klan ended when Reconstruction did in the 1870s. McVeigh’s book studies the second generation of the KKK, which started in 1915 (coinciding with the release of D.W. Griffith’s famous pro-Klan movie The Birth of a Nation) and exploded in growth from 1920-1924, with a membership of… Read more

Immigration

Fringe Groups Distort Debate Over Health Care

Written by Jill Garvey

Recently, anti-immigrant groups with controversial histories have been crying fire over connections between the issues of health care and immigration in America, all in an attempt to utilize mainstream media sources as vehicles for their panic-laden volumes of shock doctrine.

Amid a rash of articles muddying the waters on whether immigrants will and should have access to health care, both documented and undocumented immigrants are being indiscriminately battered. In such times, all journalists should exercise caution while developing stories flowing from this confluence of issues; otherwise, the best interests of all Americans could be obscured.

Such patches of fog aren’t solely emanating from the blogosphere, either.

For instance, the content of a recent Read more

The Anti-Arpaio Anthem

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

Stephen Lemons posted this great video at his blog Feathered Bastard a few days ago. Wish we could have been there.

Because I was upstairs at the Cronkite School building this past Monday watching Sheriff Joe get blistered by the journalism profs, then sung off the stage by the Freddie Mercury impersonators, I missed all the action taking place on the ground floor. There, a peaceful revolt was in full swing, with the anti-Joe forces storming the lobby, led by the Phoenix punkgrass group the Haymarket Squares.

News

ALIPAC Dumps Dobbs

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

Looks like Lou Dobbs is losing fans all around this week. Southern Poverty Law Center’s Larry Keller posted this piece on SPLC’s HateWatch blog yesterday.

Lou Dobbs and Americans for Legal Immigration – ALIPAC – are divorcing, and the parting isn’t amicable. ALIPAC President William Gheen has notified supporters that his organization has withdrawn its support of Dobbs and suspended two websites promoting the former CNN showman for president.

In a lengthy E-mail, the heartsick nativist said it was “painful” to realize he misjudged Dobbs, and that ALIPAC hopes to “put this painful episode behind us.” Gheen added contritely, “We apologize to our supporters for being wrong about Dobbs.”It was a

… Read more

Progress on Plant Safety Benefits Entire Community

Written by Garat Ibrahim

The faces of central and west central Minnesota have changed over the last decade as refugee and immigrants caused the populations of Willmar and Saint Cloud to swell. Most of these individuals work in meatpacking plants. In addition to the inherent challenges many immigrants and refugees face, they must also contend with the dangers of working in these plants.

However, there is determined community leadership in place that took the initiative to form a health action council. The council is part of the Midwest Immigrant Health Project and its goal is to address the health concerns of packinghouse and processing communities for the benefit of vulnerable immigrant workers and their families.

podcast

Audio: December 2009 Blogcast

Written by Noah Chandler

This month we meet with another activist fighting for the basic civil right called marriage. As you probably know, here in California Proposition 8 passed late last year and court challenges have not been successful in overturning the discriminatory law forbidding same-sex marriage. So, like it was about 40 years ago for interracial couples, same-sex partners cannot enter into civil marriage simply because they both are of the same gender. History teaches us that it is only a matter of time before these circumstances change but until then it is people like this month’s guest that give us hope.

After listening, please take the time to write a comment below. It is through the… Read more

Morrissey Loses a Fan

Written by Chris Bober

Music has always been a huge part of my life—especially when I was a teenager. As many young people do, I often sought an identity in song lyrics, musical styles, bands, hair, and clothes. To say I was drawn to the expressive and dramatic was an understatement. Indeed, between the ages of fifteen and eighteen-years-old, I listened almost exclusively to dark, moody, and emotional music played by The Cure, Joy Division, and Depeche Mode. However, there was no band more influential than The Smiths. Their guitarist, Johnny Marr, was one of the reasons I eventually went on to attend music school.

The band’s unique singer, Morrissey, had an even more profound effect on me. Morrissey… Read more

News

Afghan War Collapses, U.S. Withdraws After 14 Years

Written by Rev. David L. Ostendorf

Washington, D.C. December 2, 2015—After fourteen years of deadly fighting that took tens of thousands of Afghan lives and cost over $830 billion, the President announced today that all U.S. troops would be withdrawn from the battle-worn country by next March.

Almost six years to the day that a major troop buildup was ordered in Afghanistan, the President conceded that the plan had fallen far short of expectations. Latest reports from Kabul indicated that insurgents had, in fact, taken over most government offices and operations, and that no support remained for U.S. intervention. Since U.S. forces entered the country in the fall of 2001 over 85,000 Afghans have been killed in fighting. U.S. casualties have… Read more

International

Coming Home

Written by Cloee Cooper

I just returned from the small town of Mt. Shasta, CA. It was the first time in 10 years that my family (8 siblings and my parents) plus new found family members gathered at the home many of us grew up in. There we were – the wooden floors, tall ceilings, skylights -each corner and plank of wood told a story of our early years. It was the 10 year anniversary of a significant shift that occurred in many of our lives.

10 years ago this year, NATO dropped over 20,000 tons of bombs on Yugoslavia as an ultimatum for Milosevic to withdraw his troops from Kosova. That year, my family visited Kosova… Read more