Christian Identity: Do Not Love Thy Neighbor
by MJ Olahafa
Christian Identity is a particularly obscure strand of Christianity which came out of the nineteen century religious/social movement British Israelism, and holds that only the white race is salvation worthy. It advocates racism and violence as part of ‘Christian’ norms and is centered upon the belief that Jesus, Son of God and God, was a White man, descendant from an equally White, Caucasian Adam, made to the likeness and resemblance of God.
Christian Identity goes on to spread the fantasy that the Anglo-Celt-Saxons are the true Israelites, descendants of the Lost Tribes, and sons of Abraham. According to this ideology and with complete disregard of the teachings of Christ, salvation is strictly race-based and reserved to God’s Israel, i.e. the White, Caucasian, Anglo-Saxon, Nordic, Germanic and kindred race. All the other races – except for Jews – are ‘mud-people’, created prior to Adam and without souls. And even though they have a purpose here on Earth [to be sub-servant to the white race which is to have complete dominion over them], they are to take no part in salvation for they are not of AWDAWM [or Adam] and cannot “show blood in the face.” Read more
Cross-Post: Tens of Thousands March Against SB 1070 in Phoenix
By Pedro de la Torre III on May 30, 2010 at CampusProgress.org.
Tens of thousands of people marched in Phoenix today against SB 1070, Arizona’s recently passed anti-immigrant bill that could lead to racial profiling, and makes some federal immigration rules crimes in the state of Arizona. The five mile march was followed by a rally at the state capitol with speakers and music, and was the largest demonstration in Arizona since the controversial law was signed into law in late April.
Read the original article here. Read more
Cross-Post: Abortion Doctor Killer Not A Lone Wolf
As we find with most extremist violence, the urge to classify killers as act-alone outliers is comforting but normally wrong and often dangerous.
Amanda Robb writes a great investigative piece for Ms. Magazine about the web of pro-life extremists and killer Scott Roeder.
Scott Roeder is now serving a life term for murdering abortion doctor George Tiller. But did he really act alone?
AS SOON AS SCOTT ROEDER WAS NAMED THE SOLE SUSPECT IN THE point-blank shooting death of Wichita, Kan., abortion provider Dr. George Tiller in the vestibule of the Reformation Lutheran Church Tiller attended, a predictable story began to be told. Following the lead of a recent Department of Homeland Security report characterizing right-wing terrorists as lone wolves, the Los Angeles Times, CNN, ABC, NBC and FOX News all ran stories calling Roeder a “lone wolf” gunman.
It is the oldest, possibly most dangerous abortion story out there. Read more
Knowing Your Neighbors Can Affect Social Change
Last week I came home to discover little fliers stuck into the doors of three apartments on my floor, indicating a visit from the U. S. Census Taker. Now I know which people in my building are too lazy to answer ten questions. My neighbors in Chicago are part of the 28 percent of Americans who never filled out the 2010 census form they got in the mail, so the paid Census Takers are trying to track them down. I admire these Census Workers who are willing to learn, literally, “Who is my neighbor?”
In 1892, a young woman named Florence Kelley moved to Chicago from Philadelphia to begin a new chapter in her life as a divorced mother with three children. Read more
College Degrees Mean Less For Black Graduates
Over the next couple weeks America’s colleges and universities will be graduating hundreds of thousands of students into a job market that is already flooded with job seekers. For black graduates the difficult job search is compounded by racial inequality.
Blacks who have earned a bachelor’s degree or higher have a higher unemployment rate than whites who have only obtained a two-year college degree. And blacks with college degrees earn substantially less than white college graduates.
Surprisingly, the joblessness rate for Black college grads is more significant than for those without higher education, according to a recent New York Times article. “Education, it seems, does not level the playing field – in fact, it appears to have made it more uneven,” the article says. Read more
Russell Pearce: The Public Face of S.B. 1070
neo-Nazi J.T. Ready and Russell Pearce
Russell Pearce is the smiling face of S.B. 1070. The Arizona State Senator has reveled in the limelight since the racist bill was signed last month. He earns his living bashing immigrants and is a hero for the anti-immigrant movement in Arizona. Pearce’s history, however, is far from cheerful; it involves Nazis, domestic violence and xenophobia.
Pearce is a member of State Legislators for Legal Immigration, a coalition of anti-immigrant state-elected officials. As a partner of the John Tanton Network, a web of controversial anti-immigrant organizations
Orchestrated by John Tanton, State Legislators for Legal Immigration (SLLI) serves as the local legislative arm of the network. Pearce has many more connections to the Tanton Network. He was the chief sponsor of the racist S.B. 1070 bill in Arizona. The bill was drafted by Kris Kobach of the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) the legal arm of the Tanton Network. Pearce recently spoke at a membership meeting of the Texans for Immigration Reform, a group listed on FAIR’s website as a state contact. Read more
Obama Should Deploy Arizona’s National Guard To Defend Immigrants and Latinos
Word on the street is the Obama Administration is dispatching National Guard troops to the Southwest border to beef up immigration enforcement.
Here’s a better idea, rather than using troops to protect the border, let them instead protect those who are truly vulnerable: immigrants and Latinos in Arizona.
Indeed, Obama should dispatch troops to the Southern border, but also to Phoenix and while he’s at it, put the Arizona National Guard under federal command.
Much like Arkansas’ Governor Faubus in 1957, Arizona’s Gov. Brewer has made grievous mistakes in recent months. Mistakes that have left Arizona’s residents vulnerable and in need of protection. President Eisenhower had the good sense to take action when racist activity endangered lives and bigotry stood in the way of democracy. Like Eisenhower, President Obama has a choice, enable an accelerating, vitriolic atmosphere in Arizona or take a stand against it. Read more
A Little Knowledge Yields A Lot Of Power
I never expected something so small that it could fit in a back pocket to make such a big difference. For many in this country, information is readily available via the Internet. But this is not the always case in rural Iowa, and when useful information comes along it is well-received.
Back in mid-January I was in D.C. for a meeting about better safety laws and regulations for workers in the food industry – like meat processing workers, migrant agricultural workers and restaurant workers. While there, my colleagues and I stopped by the offices of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). We met with representatives who heard our concerns about the health and safety hazards immigrant workers and workers of color face every day in the heartland. Read more
NumbersUSA Refuses To Break Ties With Political Extremists
The anti-immigrant group NumbersUSA and its executive director Roy Beck just can’t seem to steer clear of controversy.
The Center for New Community reports that on June 4 Beck will address an event organized by the Maryland-based Institute of the Constitution. In 2004 the civil rights organization Southern Poverty Law Center named Institute co-founder Michael Peroutka as a member of the League of the South, a racist organization that seeks to create its own nation in the American south.
Peroutka personally accepted a national endorsement from the League of the South as the Presidential nominee for the far right Constitution Party in 2004. Peroutka’s vice-presidential running mate was Chuck Baldwin who wrote that the pro-slavery Southern Confederacy was right and that he didn’t “believe that the leaders of the old Confederacy were racists.” Read more
Cross-post: Florida Eyes Arizona-type Bill
Marisa Treviño at LatinaLista.net posted a thought-provoking article on May 19, 2010, delving into the complex effects of SB 1070 copycat bills in States like Florida.
LatinaLista.net — It wasn’t long after Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed SB 1070 that people began to wonder how many other politicians across the country would follow her lead and think the most foolproof way to win their respective elections, or re-elections, would be to voice support for Arizona’s immigration law.
We didn’t have to wait long.
As soon as SB 1070 became law, candidates in the Florida gubernatorial race started grabbing onto it — one candidate, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, even flip-flopped his position on it to show constituents he supported it and would support a similar one for Florida. Read more
Cross-post: DREAM Act Supporters Shut Down L.A. Intersection
The are some very cool things are happening in cities around the country, and most of them involve supporters and students of the DREAM Act – a piece of proposed federal legislation that would provide certain undocumented students with the opportunity to earn conditional permanent residency.
As Prerna Lal writes at change.org’s immigrant rights blog, on Thursday DREAM Act supporters, in just one of many planned actions, shut down a busy intersection in Los Angeles.
Rumor has it that the Los Angeles Police Department shut down Wilshire Boulevard at Federal building earlier today in order to defuse a bomb.
We’ll take that as a compliment. The rumored jihadis were in reality none other than DREAM Act youth and supporters, conducting another peaceful civil disobedience action in solidarity with the DREAM Act Five: a sit-down at the Federal building to ask Senator Feinstein to get the federal DREAM Act out of the Judiciary Committee and push it as a stand-alone bill. Read more
Bigots Defend Georgia Anti-immigrant Leader Against Charges of Bigotry
D.A. King
D.A. King is the face of the anti-immigrant movement in Georgia. His current group, the Dustin Inman Society, persistently promotes and pushes anti-immigrant legislation in Georgia’s State Senate and House. The Dustin Inman Society is listed as a state contact on the website of hate group Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).
In recent months, King and his group have received increased press attention. King has enjoyed being quoted and having op-eds published in Georgia newspapers, something he loves to share with his supporters on the Dustin Inman Society blog. King is also involved in an ongoing battle with Jerry Gonzalez of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO).
Anti-immigrant Rally In Phoenix Gets Ugly
Strange things are a-brewin’ within the nation’s anti-immigrant movement. Although anti-immigrant organizations of varying size and influence are enjoying the limelight as a result of Arizona’s racist law (SB 1070), it seems the attention has caused a few rifts.
And it all appears to be bubbling to the surface around the June 5 anti-immigrant rally in Phoenix. One clue is the ever-changing roster of sponsors for the event – like a game of musical chairs for far-right nativists. Originally, William Gheen was a big player, now he’s out. Then NumbersUSA, the mobilizing arm of the powerful John Tanton Network, has been demoted from an “official sponsor” to just a promoter-like role. So far NumbersUSA still has its logo on the event page, but is downplaying its involvement.
Then there are the changes on NumbersUSA’s website, which normally boasts impressive interactive features so members can share tips on politicians they don’t like or leave nasty comments. NumbersUSA’s online mobilizing and connection to supporters have arguably been its key to success. So it’s mysterious that the organization has been clamping down on its members’ freedom to express themselves. Just recently the site added a “report” option so that members can narc on each other, and also a disclaimer stating that its members’ views don’t reflect the organization’s. Read more
I Am Not Ashamed Of Arizona
By Katie Fahrenbruch
I am not ashamed of Arizona.
I’m angry and disgusted by Russell Pearce, Sheriff Joe and Jan Brewer (to name a few), I’m filled with rage when I think about SB 1070 and the cowards who supported it, and I’m utterly devastated every time I hear another family has been torn apart—but I’m not ashamed, because this is not all that Arizona is.
I am a lifelong resident of this beautiful state. I was born here, I was raised here, and I have become myself here among the heat, and the mountains, and the never ending sprawl. As I prepare to leave this place—my home for 24 years, my family and all those I hold close to my heart—I have begun to really think about what Arizona is and what it means to me, and I can confidently say that it doesn’t mean politicians, it doesn’t mean white supremacist laws, and it doesn’t mean broken families. Read more
Legislative Creep(iness)
Arizona’s SB 1070 is not the first anti-immigrant legislation to be passed. It does however continue the legislative creep that we’ve seen over the last few years. This is also not the first time that legislative creep has restricted or eliminated the rights of people in the United States.
The Indiana constitution of 1851 restricted the immigration of blacks to the state. It read, “No Negro or Mulatto shall come into, or settle in, the state, after the adoption of this constitution.”
Illinois upped the ante by extending a complete prohibition against Black immigration into the state in 1853. After the Civil War every southern state had Black Codes which relegated blacks to second-class resident status. Many of these codes required Negroes to present licenses citing their places of residence and authorizing them to work. The remnants of these laws were not completely abolished until the 1960s. Read more
FAIR President Dan Stein To Appear On Democratic Party Panel
Dan Stein
John Tanton
Is the Dallas County Democratic Party reverting to the old habits of racist democrats from the deep South? You might think so by looking at its panel tonight.
Featured on a special Democratic forum about immigration in North Texas is none other than Dan Stein, president of the nativist group Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). FAIR’s legal arm, Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), is persistently representing Dallas suburb Farmers Branch in a multimillion dollar, Arizona-style showdown with the Constitution. Not surprisingly, the draconian ordinance IRLI is pushing in Farmers Branch was created by anti-immigrant darling Kris Kobach, and was twice deemed unconstitutional by U.S. District judges.
Dallas Democratic Party leaders must know all this, so it makes one wonder why they would ever consider Dan Stein a legitimate panelist. Just a few weeks ago FAIR’s racist roots and controversial founder, John Tanton, were exposed on The Rachel Maddow Show. Rather than provide a rational explanation or just own up to the criticism, Dan Stein decided it was a good idea to go on The Rachel Maddow Show and lie about everything. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to FAIR, IRLI, and the entire John Tanton Network of anti-immigrant groups. Read more
Clear Split Between ALIPAC and Tanton Network Over Upcoming Anti-immigrant Rally
Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) leader William Gheen has always been a bit of a nut. Just last month Gheen inappropriately called for Sen. Lindsey Graham to admit he was gay at a tea party event, and who could forget when he said, “Call me old fashioned, but people should be able to shop at Wal-Mart without worrying about catching [t]uberculosis.” For years Gheen has had a close relationship with the more disciplined network of anti-immigrant groups run by John Tanton. He has attended events featuring FAIR (Tanton’s flagship organization) state groups and participated in strategy calls conducted by leaders of Tanton’s network.
Given Gheen’s past history with the Tanton Network, it was not surprising when he announced that ALIPAC would participate in an anti-immigrant rally on June 5 in Phoenix. Two days later, in its weekly letter to members, NumbersUSA, the Tanton Network’s mobilizing arm, announced it would also support the rally, stating it would “kick off other state efforts and a week long campaign called ‘Shop In Arizona.’” It appeared as if the Tanton Network and ALIPAC were working hand in hand. But then something went wrong. Read more
Beltway Elites Blame Immigrants for Teen Job Losses; Gulf Oil Spill Next?
The recent data- and chart-packed report blaming immigrants for the loss of (U.S. born!) teenage summer jobs leaves one wondering just what planet those elites at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) reside on.
That said, CIS is to be congratulated for its relentless waste of donor dollars in pursuit of utterly useless information and analysis posing as research that is of virtually no interest to anyone outside its own Beltway staff. For an outfit that loves to keep score of its own “media references” on its website, the coverage of this report must have been—to say the least—disappointing.
Do these people ever leave the Beltway?? Do they have any idea what really goes on in the rest of the country? Do they even know what goes on in “the rest of D.C.”—where hard-working people (including immigrants) clean hotel rooms, wash restaurant dishes, and do every other low-wage job that “U.S. born” teenagers don’t seem to aspire to? Read more
ALIPAC Cancels Rally Involvement Over Racist Controversy
Just over 3 hours ago, anti-immigrant group ALIPAC released a statement stating that it was pulling out of the June 5 and June 12 anti-immigrant rallies in Phoenix, AZ. ALIPAC claims that the person organizing the rally, Daniel Smeriglio, has strong ties to white nationalists. Smeriglio runs a group called Voice of the People based in Pennsylvania. In November of 2009, Smeriglio held an anti-immigrant rally in his hometown of Hazelton, PA. This video of the rally features a big man shouting into a megaphone who has been identified as Steve Smith.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) describes Smith as:
“a co-founder of the KSS,[he] is a former Aryan Nations member and former leader of the Philadelphia chapter of National Association for the Advancement of White People, which was created by former Klan leader David Duke but is no longer associated with him.”
Reproductive Justice Free From Bigotry
This month we celebrated the 50th anniversary of an advancement that revolutionized the lives of women: the pill. At the same time, population control advocates have taken center stage with the recent passage of Arizona’s anti-immigrant Senate Bill 1070.
Strangely enough, reproductive health and anti-immigrant advocates have historically found common ground on the issue of population control. Although the reproductive health movement has avoided modern racist and eugenics-related trappings that traditional population control advocates have not, it is worthwhile to examine where intersections lie so that we can identify bigoted agendas within progressive movements. Read more
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