Culture

Christian Identity: Do Not Love Thy Neighbor

Written by Guest Blogger

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… Read more

Politics

Cross-Post: Tens of Thousands March Against SB 1070 in Phoenix

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

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.

News

Cross-Post: Abortion Doctor Killer Not A Lone Wolf

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

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

… Read more

Immigration

Knowing Your Neighbors Can Affect Social Change

Written by Joan Flanagan

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… Read more

Politics

College Degrees Mean Less For Black Graduates

Written by Jessica Acee

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… Read more

Politics

Russell Pearce: The Public Face of S.B. 1070

Written by Stephen Piggott

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… Read more

Politics

Obama Should Deploy Arizona’s National Guard To Defend Immigrants and Latinos

Written by Jill Garvey

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… Read more

Health

A Little Knowledge Yields A Lot Of Power

Written by Carlos Rich

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… Read more

Politics

NumbersUSA Refuses To Break Ties With Political Extremists

Written by Eric Ward

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… Read more

Politics

Cross-post: Florida Eyes Arizona-type Bill

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

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

… Read more