Culture

Post-Racial America Still Just a Dream

Written by James E. Johnson Jr.

As this is a milestone blog for me, I was hoping to write about any number of things.  I thought maybe since NFL training camps are underway another blog about the chances of my beloved Raiders was in order. Or I could blog about the recently leaked documents regarding the Afghan War and draw the parallel to the Pentagon Papers and how they brought a quicker end to the Vietnam War.  Or maybe even the joys of summers in Colorado when my daughter comes to visit us.

However, race kept coming up and I feel the need to talk about the issue again.  As we know race is the one issue in America that… Read more

Politics

Ninety-Seven Years of Progress – Happy Birthday Grandma

Written by James E. Johnson Jr.

Going home is always wonderful.  But going home for special occasions is great.  Today, July 13th, is my grandmother’s 97th birthday. She will not make it into any history books, but she is the history of our nation.  While her life may not be extraordinary, her lifetime is an amazing tribute to those who are unwilling to give in or give up.

For my grandmother, education was separate and nowhere close to equal.  As with many Black girls and boys of the time, my grandmother never graduated from grammar school.  Before the sixth grade she had to leave school to help provide for her family.   However, in her lifetime she was able to see her… Read more

Immigration

Arizona Laws Dismantle a Century of American Progress

Written by James E. Johnson Jr.

Not since Back to the Future III has history been rolled back as much as we have seen done by the Arizona State Legislature this year. In just one legislative session the Arizona has brought back into fashion second class citizenship based on racial division. The legislature and governor of Arizona have taken us back in time to the pre-Civil Rights era.

Many of the gains made because of the civil rights efforts of Americans in the 1950s and ‘60s have been tossed out with the U.S. Constitution, by Arizona state lawmakers. SB 1070, called the ‘papers please’ law, requires all people in the state of Arizona to have documentation proving that they are… Read more

Politics

The History of Juneteenth and Mexico

Written by James E. Johnson Jr.

Saturday, June 19, is the 145th anniversary of Juneteenth.

Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 that Major General Gordon Granger read General Order #3 in Galveston, Texas, which informed former slaves that President Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation. The order freed slaves in territories rebelling against the federal government as of January 1863. Even for snail mail two and a half years is a long time for news to travel.

As if that delay were not tragic enough, Blacks in Texas could have been freed as early as 1830, when Texas’ exemption from Mexico anti-slavery laws would have expired had it remained a part of Mexico.

Politics

Legislative Creep(iness)

Written by James E. Johnson Jr.

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… Read more

Immigration

Tanton Network’s New Front Group Exploits Veterans

Written by James E. Johnson Jr.

The anti-immigrant movement in America is much like the legend of Medusa – for every snakehead that is cut off another grows in its place.

In 2007, a group calling itself Vietnamese for Fair Immigration (now defunct) was exposed as a front group for radical and racist individuals with ties to white supremacy groups. The spokesperson, Tim Binh (real name Tim Brummer), turned out to be a white, Southern California man who justified misrepresenting himself as a Vietnamese refugee by stating, “I speak Vietnamese. I eat Vietnamese food. I live with Vietnamese. In my mind, I’m half Vietnamese.”

The anti-immigrant John Tanton Network did something similar when it essentially put on blackface and… Read more

Politics

Date SB1070 Goes Into Effect Significant

Written by James E. Johnson Jr.

Do you know where you will be July 28, 2010? Of course that is the date that S. B. 1070 is due to take effect in Arizona.

This is a date of significance in history. On this date in 1868 the 14th amendment was ratified. The 14th amendment has three major clauses dealing with people inside of the United States. Each of these three clauses is under attack in Arizona as well as other parts of our Constitution.

The first clause of the 14th amendment called the Citizenship clause states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the… Read more

Politics

Arizona Law is Threat to Justice Everywhere

Written by James E. Johnson Jr.

“Any law that uplifts the human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.”

~Dr. Martin Luther King wrote in a letter from a Birmingham jail.

In his Huffington Post article, Clarence B. Jones did not just stray from the path of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., but began walking with the very people whose ideologies he and Dr. King opposed during the 1960s.

Mr. Jones’ article begins with, “A good doctor knows to treat the disease, not the symptoms.” And ends with, “…Arizona legislation is treating the symptoms of an international disease that needs much stronger medicine.”

It must be added that a good doctor would not prescribe… Read more

Politics

Blackface and the Far Right

Written by James E. Johnson Jr.

Why is putting on blackface such the rage on the far right? The mighty pale Tea Party movement is not the first to try this tactic. The nearly all white anti-immigrant movement has been trying on blackface over the last few years. It is not just to hide its complexion; it is also an attempt to get a free ride in Black communities.

In 2006, the John Tanton Network put together Choose Black America as the Black wing of the anti-immigrant movement. One of the leaders they chose was Ted Hayes who became one of the movement’s favorite pets. Jim Gilchrist head of the extremist anti-immigrant group the Minuteman Project called Hayes… Read more

Healthcare Should Be Just the Beginning

Written by James E. Johnson Jr.

The parable of the talents should be a cautionary tale for members of our government. In the parable the master (the voters) entrusted three servants with a number of talents based on their abilities and told them to do his work.

To the first servant whom he deemed the most able (President Obama) he entrusted five talents. To the second servant whom he deemed second most able (Congressional Democrats) he entrusted two talents. And to the servant whom he deemed least able (Congressional Republicans) he entrusted one talent. Then the master went on a long journey (two years between elections).