tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84748768616367016472024-02-20T11:56:48.703-05:00Momma, here come that woman again!<p><p><p>African American. Woman(ist). Christian. Progressive. Antiracist.</p></p></p>Blaque Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08627683764935084863noreply@blogger.comBlogger558125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8474876861636701647.post-59407814261230702572012-10-13T15:27:00.001-04:002012-10-13T15:28:43.705-04:00This Is Why Black Folks'll Probably Stay on the Democratic "Plantation":eyeroll:<br />
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<a href="http://www.salon.com/2012/10/12/ten_conservatives_who_have_praised_slavery/">Ten conservatives who have praised slavery</a>
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10. Rep. Loy Mauch. This Arkansas GOP state legislator has found biblical support for his pro-slavery position. He wrote to the Democrat-Gazette to inquire, “If slavery were so God-awful, why didn’t Jesus or Paul condemn it, why was it in the Constitution and why wasn’t there a war before 1861?
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And just think, he's only #10. <a href="http://www.salon.com/2012/10/12/ten_conservatives_who_have_praised_slavery/">There're 9 more!</a>Blaque Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08627683764935084863noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8474876861636701647.post-190607861172126702012-10-11T12:47:00.001-04:002012-10-11T12:55:38.610-04:00It's Their Economy (Not Yours), Stupid!<div style="text-align: left;">
Great article. I disagree that the majority of white Southerners aren't to blame for voting for their own misfortune, but other than that, aces. ~ Blaque Swan (@No1_BSwan)</div>
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<a href="http://www.salon.com/2012/10/10/slave_states_vs_free_states_2012/">Slave States vs. Free States, 2012</a></div>
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Protecting the prerogatives of the Southern economic elite and the politicians it owns from external interference is the rationale for the defense of states’ rights, in the 21st century as in the 19th and 20th. While they demonize “the federal government” as though it were some external force, Southern conservatives are actually afraid of democracy — national democracy. They are afraid of their fellow Americans outside of the region they control. They are afraid that national majorities will impose unwelcome reform on the South, at the expense of their profits and privileges, as national majorities did during Reconstruction, the New Deal and the civil rights revolution.</blockquote>
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I can't very well copy/paste the entire article. <a href="http://www.salon.com/2012/10/10/slave_states_vs_free_states_2012/" target="_blank">So here's the rest of it here.</a>Blaque Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08627683764935084863noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8474876861636701647.post-83936641279842206172012-10-07T12:32:00.001-04:002012-10-11T12:52:27.618-04:00"GOP as I Say, Not as I GOP"?<blockquote>
<a href="http://www.salon.com/2012/10/07/why_the_gop_wont_talk_affirmative_action/">Why won’t the GOP talk about affirmative action?</a>
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While conservatives mount their hard-line attacks in court, party leaders are scrambling to find and promote minorities, both to run for key offices and to serve in the highest levels of government. In a party where 9 out of 10 members are white, according to Pew surveys, that effort requires fast-tracking minorities over equally qualified white candidates. Today’s Republican leaders have a tortured relationship to affirmative action – they tip the scale for diversity in electoral politics but blast college admissions officers who do the same thing.</blockquote>
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...</blockquote>
Finish reading <a href="http://www.salon.com/2012/10/07/why_the_gop_wont_talk_affirmative_action/" target="_blank">here</a>.
Blaque Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08627683764935084863noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8474876861636701647.post-206671963197205942012-06-21T14:32:00.000-04:002012-06-21T14:32:54.434-04:00Race Is a Biological Concept(?)<blockquote class="tr_bq"><a href="http://www.bostonreview.net/BR37.3/anne_fausto-sterling_biology_race.php" target="_blank">In Chicago in 1980, black and white</a> women died of breast cancer at the same rate. Today, despite being slightly more likely to get breast cancer, white female Chicagoans are half as likely to die from it. Could the difference in death rates be due to genetic differences between black and white women?<br />
. . .<br />
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Race is a political category that has staggering biological consequences because of the impact of social inequality on people’s health. Understanding race as a political category does not erase its impact on biology; instead, it redirects attention from genetic explanations to social ones.</blockquote><br />
Check out this article in <u>Boston Review</u> by Anne Fausto-Sterling: <a href="http://www.bostonreview.net/BR37.3/anne_fausto-sterling_biology_race.php">Bodies with Histories: The New Search for the Biology of Race</a>.<br />
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In it, Fausto Sterling reviews these three important and thought-provoking books:<br />
<ul><li>Richard C. Francis, <a href="http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780393070057-2?&PID=35607">Epigenetics: The Ultimate Mystery of Inheritance</a>. W. W. Norton, $25.95 (cloth)</li>
<li>Ann Morning, <a href="http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780520270312-0?&PID=35607">The Nature of Race: How Scientists Think and Teach about Human Difference. University of California Press</a>, $26.95 (paper)</li>
<li>Dorothy Roberts, <a href="http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9781595584953-0?&PID=35607">Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-first Century</a>. New Press, $29.95 (cloth)</li>
</ul>Blaque Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08627683764935084863noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8474876861636701647.post-74068719297925916332012-05-18T15:04:00.000-04:002012-10-11T12:56:40.919-04:00Extreme Sport: Being BlackBefore getting to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chad_Holley" target="_blank">Chad Holley situation</a>, let me just remind you,<a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-trayvon-martin-20120518,0,7186131.story" target="_blank"> re Trayvon Martin</a>, that <a href="http://www.timwise.org/2009/07/denial-is-a-river-wider-than-the-charles-racism-and-implicit-bias-in-cambridge/" target="_blank">white Americans routinely have visual perception</a> <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=975793" target="_blank">problems when it comes to encounters between a white person and a person of color</a>.<br />
<br />
Now to Chad Holley's beating, verdict for the first of four cops charged with <i>oppression</i> (Yeah, that made no sense to me either.)<a href="https://www.google.com/url?url=http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/southwest/view/20120517houston_jury_acquits_white_ex-officer_in_beating_of_black_teen/srvc%3Dhome%26position%3Drecent&rct=j&sa=X&ei=tZK2T-iUCKeB6gGzurTaCg&ved=0CDEQ-AsoADAA&q=all+white+jury+acquits+white+houston+cop&usg=AFQjCNGowPnfyRjz8YXg1vJCbZvJ3_RPjw" target="_blank"> was announced yesterday:</a><a href="https://www.google.com/url?url=http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/southwest/view/20120517houston_jury_acquits_white_ex-officer_in_beating_of_black_teen/srvc%3Dhome%26position%3Drecent&rct=j&sa=X&ei=tZK2T-iUCKeB6gGzurTaCg&ved=0CDEQ-AsoADAA&q=all+white+jury+acquits+white+houston+cop&usg=AFQjCNGowPnfyRjz8YXg1vJCbZvJ3_RPjw" target="_blank"> <b>not guilty</b></a>. Make no mistake about it folks, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/02/us/02jury.html" target="_blank">prosecutors don't want <i>everybody</i> serving on the jury</a>. <i>You</i> have got to<a href="http://www.statesman.com/news/texas/hundreds-protest-ex-officers-oppression-acquittal-2362124.html" target="_blank"> honor your jury summons and serve on the jury</a>. It's not just your legal "duty," it's your moral obligation.<br />
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And to my <a href="http://herecomethatgirl.blogspot.com/2012/04/do-we-have-any-rights-whites-are-bound.html" target="_blank">previous question</a>, the answer appears to be no.</div>
Blaque Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08627683764935084863noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8474876861636701647.post-36398481346678732042012-05-07T18:37:00.003-04:002012-05-07T18:38:53.412-04:00Go Fighting Sioux!!Since I'm referring to the actual Sioux nation and <i>not</i> UND, I hope everyone'll see my title as the clever turn of phrase and . . . er, um . . . the clever <i>turn</i> of phrase that it is. Cause I'm really excited and I hope the US enacts the following suggestion:<br />
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<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/07/mt-rushmore-un-report-james-anaya_n_1496120.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">Mt. Rushmore Site Should Be Returned To Indigenous Native American Tribes, U.N. Official Says</span></a></div>
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South Dakota's Black Hills, home to the granite faces carved into Mt. Rushmore, should be restored as Native American tribal lands, a United Nations official recently said.<br />
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James Anaya, a U.N. special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous people, completed a fact-finding mission on Friday that included meetings with a number of Native American tribal leaders as well as White House officials. His investigation led him to suggest that the United States take additional steps to repair the nation's legacy of oppression against Native Americans. He'll officially propose the plan in an upcoming report. From the <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/un-fact-finder-indigenous-rights-wraps-visit-194935460.html;_ylt=A2KJ3CXs46dPjC4Ay4fQtDMD" target="_blank">Associated Press</a>:<br />
<blockquote>
Anaya said land restoration would help bring about reconciliation. He named the Black Hills as an example. He said restoring to indigenous people what they have a legitimate claim to can be done in a way that is not divisive "so that the Black Hills, for example, isn't just a reminder of the subordination and domination of indigenous peoples in that country."<br />
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The Black Hills, home to Mount Rushmore, are public land but are considered sacred by the Sioux tribes. The Sioux have refused to accept money awarded in a 1980 U.S. Supreme Court decision and have sought return of the land. The Black Hills and other lands were set aside for the Sioux in an 1868 treaty. But Congress passed a law in 1877 taking the land.</blockquote>
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According to Anaya, handing over these lands would be a key step toward repairing relations with the indigenous people who once controlled them. It would also further the nation's compliance with the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a measure that President Barack Obama endorsed in 2010, reversing a previous vote.<br />
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"I have heard stories that make evident the profound hurt that indigenous peoples continue to feel because of the history of oppression they have faced," Anaya said Friday in a statement issued by the U.N. human rights office in Geneva. "Securing the rights of indigenous peoples to their lands is of central importance to indigenous peoples' socioeconomic development, self-determination, and cultural integrity. ... Continued efforts to resolve, clarify, and strengthen the protection of indigenous lands, resources, and sacred sites should be made."<br />
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Anaya will outline a full set of recommendations regarding Native American relations in a report set to be released later this year.</blockquote>Blaque Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08627683764935084863noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8474876861636701647.post-53031296815901461082012-04-14T12:31:00.002-04:002012-04-14T12:37:32.440-04:00Do We Have Any Rights Whites Are Bound to Respect?: State of Georgia vs John McNeilEven when we're unarmed, you can "justifiably" defend yourself against us. Other the other hand, even as you threaten us and our families and ignore our warning to back-off, we can't "justifiably" defend ourselves against you! Race isn't an issue my ass! I don't see the <a href="http://www.theyoungturks.com/story/2012/4/12/95742/3402/Diary/Gun-Rights-Advocates-Inconsistent-Record-on-Shooting-Deaths" target="_blank">NRA clamoring to protect John McNeil's</a> "2nd amendment" rights!<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.salon.com/2012/04/11/when_stand_your_ground_fails/singleton/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">When “Stand Your Ground” Fails</span></a></b><br />
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by Rania Khalek</div>
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<i>John McNeil killed a white man who assaulted him on his property. But, unlike George Zimmerman, he's serving life.</i><br />
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<i>Trayvon Martin's tragic murder has brought much-needed scrutiny to "Stand Your Ground" laws. If you read or hear about a local "Stand Your Ground" case that isn't getting much national press, <a href="http://open.salon.com/blog/emily_holleman/2012/04/11/open_call_stand_your_ground_watch" target="_blank">blog about it on Open Salon</a></i>.<br />
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As the shooting death of Trayvon Martin and the failure of authorities to arrest his killer, George Zimmerman, continues to grab headlines, many conservatives and gun rights advocates insist that race has nothing to do with it. Some have also rallied to the defense of Florida’s “stand your ground” law, the self-defense legislation under which Zimmerman was able to avoid arrest. Yet not all stand your ground claims are so successful. Not too far from Sanford, Fla., a black man named John McNeil is serving a life sentence for shooting Brian Epp, a white man who trespassed and attacked him at his home in Georgia, another stand your ground state.<br />
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It all began in early 2005, when McNeil and his wife, Anita, hired Brian Epp’s construction company to build a new house in Cobb County, Ga. The McNeils testified that Epp was difficult to work with, which led to heated confrontations. They eventually decided to close on the house early to rid their lives of Epp, whom they found increasingly threatening. At the closing, both parties agreed that Epp would have 10 days to complete the work, after which he would stay away from the property, but he failed to keep up his end of the bargain.<br />
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On Dec. 6, 2005, John McNeil’s 15-year-old son, La’Ron, notified his dad over the phone that a man he didn’t recognize was lurking in the backyard. When La’Ron told the man to leave, an argument broke out. McNeil was still on the phone and immediately recognized Epp’s voice. According to La’Ron’s testimony, Epp pointed a folding utility knife at La’Ron’s face and said, “[w]hy don’t you make me leave?” at which point McNeil told his son to go inside and wait while he called 911 and headed home.<br />
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According to McNeil’s testimony, when he pulled up to his house, Epp was next door grabbing something from his truck and stuffing it in his pocket. McNeil quickly grabbed his gun from the glove compartment in plain view of Epp who was coming at him “fast.” McNeil jumped out of the car and fired a warning shot at the ground insisting that Epp back off. Instead of retreating, Epp charged at McNeil while reaching for his pocket, so McNeil fired again, this time fatally striking Epp in the head. (Epp was found to have a folding knife in his pocket, although it was shut.)<br />
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The McNeils weren’t the only ones who felt threatened by Epp. David Samson and Libby Jones, a white couple who hired Epp to build their home in 2004, testified that they carried a gun as a “precaution” around Epp because of his threatening behavior. According to Jones, Epp nearly hit her when she expressed dissatisfaction with his work at a weekly meeting. The couple even had a lawyer write a letter warning Epp to stay away from their property. Samson testified that after they fired him, Epp would park his car across the street and watch their house, saying “it got to the point where my wife and I were in total fear of this man.”<br />
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After a neighbor across the street who witnessed the encounter corroborated McNeil’s account, police determined that it was a case of self-defense and did not charge him in the death. Nevertheless, almost a year later Cobb County District Attorney Patrick Head decided to prosecute McNeil for murder. In 2006, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.<br />
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McNeil’s attorney Mark Yurachek told Salon that “DAs throughout the country enjoy that kind of flexibility of deciding who to prosecute, but it’s curious that he took a year to do it.” While he said there’s no way to know what swayed the DA to prosecute, Yurachek revealed that letters, which he obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, were written to the DA’s office demanding that McNeil be charged. “They were mostly emails from people cajoling prosecutors to investigate,” says Yurachek. “One was from Epp’s widow. Others were written anonymously.”<br />
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In 2008, McNeil appealed his case to the Georgia Supreme Court with all but one of the seven justices upholding his conviction. The sole dissent came from Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears who argued, <a href="http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ga-supreme-court/1418360.html" target="_blank">“the State failed to disprove John McNeil’s claim of self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt.” She went on to write</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Even viewed in the light most favorable to the verdict, the evidence was overwhelming in showing that a reasonable person in McNeil’s shoes would have believed that he was subject to an imminent physical attack by an aggressor possessing a knife and that it was necessary to use deadly force to protect himself from serious bodily injury or a forcible felony. Under the facts of this case, it would be unreasonable to require McNeil to wait until Epp succeeded in attacking him, thereby potentially disarming him, getting control of the gun, or stabbing him before he could legally employ deadly force to defend himself. This is not what Georgia law requires.</blockquote>
As a leading gun rights state, Georgia has both <a href="http://www.georgiapacking.org/GaCode/?title=16&chapter=3&section=21" target="_blank">a stand your ground law</a> that permits citizens to use deadly force “only if he or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent death or great bodily injury,” as well as <a href="http://www.georgiapacking.org/GaCode/?title=16&chapter=3&section=23" target="_blank">a Castle Doctrine law, which justifies the use of deadly force in defense of one’s home</a>.<br />
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Thus far, gun rights advocates such as the NRA and former Cobb County congressional Rep. Newt Gingrich have been silent on McNeil’s conviction, though it’s unclear whether they are aware of the case. The NRA did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Still, Rev. William Barber, president of the North Carolina NAACP State Conference, argues, “The NRA would be screaming about the injustice of his conviction if John had been white and shot a black assailant that came at him on his property armed with a knife.” (McNeil grew up in North Carolina, where the local NAACP chapter, led by Barber, was the first to pick up on his case in Georgia.)<br />
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Barber was clear that the NAACP remains firmly against stand your ground laws because “they give cover to those who may engage in racial profiling and racialized violence,” adding that “There is a history and legacy of discriminatory application of the law” that continues to this day. “African-Americans are caught in curious position. On one hand, we fight against stand your ground laws, but once the laws are on the books they aren’t applied to us.”<br />
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Civil rights activist Markel Hutchins agrees and has <a href="http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-government/lawsuit-challenges-georgias-stand-1411841.html" target="_blank">filed a federal lawsuit challenging Georgia’s stand your ground law because the law is not applied equally to African-Americans</a>. He accuses the courts of accepting “the race of a victim as evidence to establish the reasonableness of an individual’s fear in cases of justifiable homicide.”<br />
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Meanwhile, Barber argues that McNeil’s treatment stands in stark contrast to that of George Zimmerman, who has been afforded the benefit of the doubt despite his victim being unarmed. “America’s always had a difficult issue dealing with race, so rather than face it when it’s exposed, the tendency by some is to try and dismiss it. But the reality is you do not see this kind of miscarriage of justice when it comes to whites.” He adds, “John’s whole life has been taken away from him. His wife is very ill with cancer and she has lost a husband, his sons have lost a father and society has lost a man that was contributing to his community.”</blockquote>Blaque Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08627683764935084863noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8474876861636701647.post-76460527690370598312012-04-03T21:37:00.001-04:002012-04-05T18:48:22.769-04:00DoJ Needed in Chicago, TooUpdate: He's been <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/05/howard-morgan-chicago-sentenced_n_1406312.html" target="_blank">sentenced to 40 year</a>s. You can sign <a href="http://www.change.org/petitions/please-help-us-free-howard-morgan" target="_blank">a change.org petition here</a>.<br />
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Me? I'm ready for DEFCOM 1 <a href="http://www.freehowardmorgan.com/" target="_blank">on this one</a>. Where's the red button? I done had it with this ish!<br />
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<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/03/howard-morgan-ex-cop-shot_n_1399834.html?view=screen" target="_blank">Howard Morgan, Black Off-Duty Cop Shot 28 Times By White Chicago Officers, Faces Sentencing</a><br />
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<a href="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/555950/thumbs/s-HOWARD-MORGAN-SHOT-28-TIMES-large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" src="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/555950/thumbs/s-HOWARD-MORGAN-SHOT-28-TIMES-large.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
As much of the country follows the Trayvon Martin case, activists in Chicago are hoping to bring some of that attention to Howard Morgan, a former Chicago police officer who was <a href="http://www.suntimes.com/news/mitchell/11680969-452/chicago-has-its-own-trayvon-like-scandal.html" target="_blank">shot 28 times by white officers</a> -- and lived to tell his side of the story.<br />
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Morgan was off-duty as a detective for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad when <a href="http://www.suntimes.com/10292468-417/ex-cop-guilty-of-trying-to-kill-four-officers-during-traffic-stop.html" target="_blank">he was pulled over for driving the wrong way on a one-way street on Feb 21, 2005</a>, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. While both police and Morgan agree on that much, what happened next is a mystery.<br />
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According to police, Morgan opened fire with his service weapon when officers tried to arrest him, which caused them to shoot him 28 times. His family, however, very much doubts those claims.<br />
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“Four white officers and one black Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad police man with his weapon on him — around the corner from our home — and he just decided to go crazy? No. That’s ludicrous,” Morgan's wife, Rosalind Morgan, told the Sun-Times.<br />
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She was not the only person to doubt CPD's side of the story. A <a href="http://www.change.org/petitions/please-help-us-free-howard-morgan" target="_blank">Change.org petition</a> signed by more than 2,600 people called for all charges against Morgan to be dropped, and now Occupy Chicago is getting involved.<br />
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"After being left for dead, he survived and was then charged with attempted murder of the four white officers who brutalized him," Occupy wrote on their website, adding that <a href="http://occupychi.org/direct-action/event/final-rally-free-howard-morgan" target="_blank">Morgan was found not guilty on three counts</a>, including discharging his weapon. The same jury that cleared him of opening fire on the officers, however, deadlocked on a charge of attempted murder -- and another jury found him guilty in January.<br />
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That jury was not allowed to hear that Morgan had been acquitted of the other charges.<br />
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Protesters and Morgan's family say the second trial amounted to double jeopardy, and claim officers<a href="http://www.change.org/petitions/please-help-us-free-howard-morgan" target="_blank"> have gone to great lengths to obstruct justice in the case</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Howard Morgan's van was crushed and destroyed without notice or cause before any forensic investigation could be done.<br />
...<br />
Howard Morgan was never tested for gun residue to confirm if he even fired a weapon on the morning in question.<br />
The State never produced the actual bullet proof vest worn by one of the officers who claimed to have allegedly taken a shot directly into the vest on the morning in question. The State only produced a replica.</blockquote>
“If they can do this and eliminate double jeopardy and your constitutional rights, then my God, I fear for every Afro-American — whether they be male or female — in this corrupt unjust system,” Morgan's wife told the Sun-Times.<br />
<br />
Howard Morgan will be sentenced Thursday. He <a href="http://www.chicagonow.com/chicago-muckrakers/2012/04/barber-shop-preview-the-case-of-howard-morgan-gun-violence-and-police-accountability/" target="_blank">faces 80 years in prison</a>.</blockquote>Blaque Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08627683764935084863noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8474876861636701647.post-58231219123493100632012-03-31T13:11:00.001-04:002012-03-31T13:44:33.141-04:00Trayvon, You Ain't Alone, and What Can Be Done about It<blockquote>
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/28/chicagoans-rally-for-reki_n_1385032.html?ref=mostpopular" target="_blank">Some 200 protesters angered</a> by a Chicago police officer's fatal shooting of a 22-year-old woman last week rallied Tuesday outside the officer's home, calling for justice for a woman police admit was an innocent bystander.</blockquote>
<br />
Okay, just quickly cause I'm watching BookTV on C-SPAN2 as I write this - being from Jesse Helms's hometown or just his home state is <i>nothing</i> to be proud of. You can be proud Tarheel born and bred. That's a very different matter from being a proud "Jesse Helms's home-stater." My condolences to his family notwithstanding. It's a matter of emphasis.<br />
<br />
Now, to my point, Rekia Boyd, the aforementioned 22-year-old. A police officer fired at Antonio Cross who was allegedly approaching him with a gun, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/28/chicagoans-rally-for-reki_n_1385032.html?ref=mostpopular" target="_blank">striking Cross in the hand and Boyd in the head</a>. The police ruled the shooting justified. See what's wrong with this picture? . . . No? Let me help you. Setting aside the question of whether or not Cross was armed with anything aside from his cell phone; setting aside whatever the officer may have said the day before; isn't there some sort of protocol against shooting into a crowd?<br />
<br />
What to do about this in the bigger picture, I don't know. Just a few days after the Boyd killing, and in the same Lawndale neighborhood, <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-cops-one-reportedly-dead-following-lawndale-police-shooting-20120325,0,987315.story" target="_blank">another man was shot and killed by police</a>. Police say he pulled a gun from his waistband, subsequently there was a struggle over the gun during which the man was shot. Cut and dry, right? Wrong. No weapon has been recovered from the scene.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a>Here's what makes the "bigger picture" a little murky: just the prior week, another man in Chicago, albeit in a different part of Chicago,<a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-03-22/news/chi-chicago-police-shoot-man-wielding-shotgun-20120322_1_probes-shootings-chicago-police-sawed-off-shotgun" target="_blank"> really did point a sawed-off shot gun at police</a>.<br />
<br />
So what are police to do?<br />
<br />
First, emphasis on <i><b>police</b></i>. And that for two reasons. One being rather obvious in light of the <a href="http://herecomethatgirl.blogspot.com/2012/03/trayvon-martin-je-te-plumerai.html" target="_blank">month's events in Florida</a>: <i>this does not apply to member of any neighborhood watch</i>. Reason #2 being that <i>you can't hold an entire group of people responsible for the actions of a few</i>. Yes, someone pointed a gun at you on Monday. Take time off if you must. Cause the next time, it could be just a can of iced tea. Or a hairbrush. And to argue that you shouldn't be held accountable, that the community in question should change their norms, is the direct <i>opposite</i> of personal and individual responsibility. Not just that you're accountable for your own actions, but also that an entire community can't be accountable for the actions of two people. After all, if that were the case, you'd be out of a job, Mr/s. Police Officer.<br />
<br />
Back to my thoughts on what police can do to stop shooting unarmed people, <i>secondly</i>, if the idea of being shot on the job is too much for you, <i>don't join the police</i>. Don't get me wrong. My heart goes out to the family and friends of officers killed in the line of duty. But that's a separate issue. People die everyday, and a cops death is no more painful to his/her family and friends than anyone else's. My point is that if you can't handle that risk, don't join the force. It's really that simple as far as I'm concerned. Take for example my mother. No, she's not a policewoman, but I'm addressing the issue of forethought in one career path and family planning. See, knowing that she wanted to be heavily involved in church work and civic service, she and my father made the decision to have just two kids. After I was born, my mom had her tubes tide. (Gosh! Who knows what all kinds of things they did in the sexual realm that runs counter to how things are <i>"supposed"</i> to be!) So from where I stand, not becoming a police officer because you don't wanna risk being shot is just plain ole good common sense.<br />
<br />
If you do join, understand that you have an obligation to risk your life by taking that extra split second to clearly identify a gun. That's called <i>protecting</i>. Everything shiny ain't a gun. And if it <i>is</i> a gun, what if the suspect is planning to drop the weapon? <i>I</i> don't think it's too much to ask of police officers to be sure not only that this person your gun is aimed at is armed, but also that they're dangerous. I mean, what if they raise their arms above their head and in doing so, a weapon is displayed from their waistband - are you going to shoot then, too?<br />
<br />
If you're unwilling or unable to take the extra split second to clearly identify a gun, <i>don't join the police</i>. There're other ways to serve your community, even in terms of law enforcement. For example, you could join the crime scene unit, become a lab tech. Or go to law school and join the prosecutor's office. You don't have to join the police. If you're unwilling to risk your life in order to protect others, and that from even yourself, <b><i>don't join the police!</i></b><br />
<b><i><br />
</i></b><br />
And you know what? Don't join neighborhood watch, either.Blaque Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08627683764935084863noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8474876861636701647.post-89262990476890583652012-03-28T15:13:00.000-04:002012-03-28T15:15:08.188-04:00Trayvon Martin, Je Te Plumerai<div style="text-align: left;">
h/t and best wishes for <a href="http://prometheus6.org/node/28430" target="_blank">P6</a><br />
<br />
via <a href="http://www.bomanijones.com/trayvon-martin-black-man-deserves-die/" target="_blank">Bomani Jones</a><br />
<br />
Warning: this will be long.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.bomanijones.com/trayvon-martin-black-man-deserves-die/" style="font-size: medium;">Trayvon Martin, And When A Black Man Deserves To Die</a>
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<br />
My <i>jones</i> for Bomani notwithstanding, I agree with him 100%. I just want to share my thoughts and feelings now, since they're . . . more readily accessible to me at the moment.<br />
<br />
Now, there <i>is</i> a reason we jump to defend people with "pristine" images: wider (ie, <i>whiter</i>) America can support <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2009/03/01/a-forgotten-contribution.html" target="_blank">Rosa Parks whereas Claudette Colvin</a> presents something of a problem. For them. Me? I got a lot of respect for Colvin, and all the other men and women who've challenged, intentionally or not, our racial status quo.<br />
<br />
As well as all the innocent and unarmed men and women who've been shot and killed by the folks who're supposed to serve and protect. And in some cases, <i style="font-weight: bold;">watch</i>.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
Cause I'm sure Trayvon Martin didn't have <i>this</i> in mind, talking on the cell to his girlfriend while walking home with some skittles (Taste the <i>rainbow</i>?) for a younger brother and a can of Arizona (ironic, huh?) iced tea. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
And I hella know George Zimmerman was only supposed to <i>watch</i>. That's <i>watch</i> as opposed to <i>surveille</i>.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Now, my Jones makes the point that this racialized suspicion of black men doesn't just reside in Zimmerman or Joe Oliver his black "uncle" to whom he's apparently not very close . It resides in . . . all of us, to be quite frank. <a href="http://www.timwise.org/2012/03/trayvon-martin-white-denial-and-the-unacceptable-burden-of-blackness-in-america/" target="_blank">Tim Wise points out that we live in "[a]</a> society in which anti-black racism has been so long ingrained that not only most whites, but also most Latinos and Asian Americans, demonstrate substantial subconscious bias against African Americans in study after study of implicit racial hostility (and even about a third of blacks themselves demonstrate anti-black racism)." And listen, if <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/show/5978" target="_blank">the Rev. Jesse </a><a href="http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3911" target="_blank">Jackson can admit it</a>, then so can <b><i>you</i></b>. I <i>strongly</i> pray you to read <a href="http://www.timwise.org/2012/03/trayvon-martin-white-denial-and-the-unacceptable-burden-of-blackness-in-america/" target="_blank">Tim's aforementioned essay</a>. The fact that I used the word "pray" in this manner should demonstrate the urgency and emotions of my request.<br />
<br />
But a lot of questions have been raised by people who insist this incident (and, I imagine, <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/media/2012/03/19/447289/all-major-news-outlets-cover-trayvon-martin-tragedy-except-fox-news/" target="_blank"><i>their</i> reaction</a> to it) has nothing to do with race. <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/03/gingrich-calls-obamas-trayvon-martin-remarks-disgraceful/" target="_blank">They insist that Pres Obama was being divisive</a> when he said if he had a son, that son would look like Trayvon. So let me address those issues:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>I don't care if Trayvon was in Orlando trying to hide from CSI: Miami on murder charges. Zimmerman wouldn't have known. So all these "leaks" concerning his suspension from school and his picture with the gangsta-grill don't make a <i>lick</i> of difference.</li>
<li>You've seen Michelle and Pres. Obama's two daughters. If they had a son, he <i>would</i> look like Trayvon. Though, I do give you a few points for resisting the urge to suggest he actually could <i>be</i> Pres. Obama's son. Race baiter or an absent baby-daddy, I know it was a hard choice to make. I commend you for sticking with the more plausible, though equally as false, of the two.</li>
<li>The reason he doesn't look like <i>your</i> son, Newt Gingrich and Jonah Goldberg, is that <i>your</i> son is <i style="font-weight: bold;">white!</i> At least any legitimate ones cause I can't imagine an openly black woman who'd marry you.</li>
<li>That someone died would've been a tragedy no matter the race of the victim or perpetrator.</li>
<li>The black community is well concerned with black-on-black crime. You just don't know that because you don't live in the black community.</li>
<li>One reason we're code orange on this one is that the killer has not been arrested, nor the case properly and fully investigated. If you can point me to a case where a white teenager was killed, circumstance hardly investigated, and the killer still free and armed, I may change my tune.<i> If you can show me a history of white men being killed with impunity, I </i>will<i> pinch myself and wake up.</i></li>
<li>Another reason we're near code red is that <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/the-killing-of-trayvon-martin-more-questions/2011/03/04/gIQALETDeS_blog.html?tid=pm_opinions_pop" target="_blank">Trayvon's body sat in the morgue as a john doe</a> at least until the next morning. No one called the last number dialed on his cell phone. No one checked his ID. If you can show me where that happened to a white kid, where their body sat in the morgue unidentified even though you had their cell phone and possibly an ID, I <i>may</i> change my tune.</li>
</ul>
<div>
Ultimately, the reason for the uproar is that this is <i>not</i> an isolated incidence. We've had it with policeman killing us with impunity. That's been a tough pill to swallow. That fact that Oscar Grant's killer was convicted of <i>anything</i>, even if not outright murder, did help; still, it only pinched the nose. But to tell us that a white man can shoot and kill an unarmed black boy and not even be arrested?! Ooooo, honey, honey, honey, honey chil'!!! Damn it!! Somebody better hide the red button cause it's bout to be pressed! All y'all Fox hounds need to thank CNN and MSNBC for covering the issue like that have, otherwise. . . Well, let me put it like this: in years past, black protest riots were centralized to black ghetto, but today, some of us live in gated community beside <i>you</i>.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So <i>now</i>, Bomani Jones:</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
<a href="http://www.bomanijones.com/trayvon-martin-black-man-deserves-die/">Trayvon Martin, And When A Black Man Deserves To Die</a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
</div>
<br />
<blockquote>
Pop quiz: if Trayvon Martin were 25, would you care to know his name?<br />
<br />
If he had just been released from prison two weeks earlier, would you care that he was dead?<br />
<br />
Why do you care so much about what happened to this one particular young man?<br />
<br />
I ask because so much of the outrage surrounding Martin’s shooting has to do with his age. He was 17, shot on the way home from buying a bag of Skittles and an iced tea from a corner store. The imagery is striking — this young, skinny kid, far away from home, shot dead by a vigilante while returning from buying candy for his little brother. It tugs the heart strings, and it gets attention from even those “tired of talking about race.” A boy died, and there appears to be ample reason to believe that he got shot for, literally, trying to mind his own business. It’s the rare case where race is an unavoidable variable, probably the catalyst for everything bad that happened, and there is no polarizing effect. That’s what happens when kids get shot. No one wants to be the one to condone a child being stalked like prey. It’s an easy case to get behind.<br />
<br />
But if our victim wasn’t so pristine, not a babe in the woods, are we having this discussion?</blockquote>
<blockquote>
***</blockquote>
<blockquote>
Check the <a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/03/17/2700249_p3/shooter-of-trayvon-martin-a-habitual.html" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #bd9740; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">last quote in this story, offered by the now-kinda-resigned police chief in Sanford</a>.<br />
<blockquote>
“We are taking a beating over this,” said Lee, who defends the investigation. “This is all very unsettling. I’m sure if George Zimmerman had the opportunity to relive Sunday, Feb. 26, he’d probably do things differently. I’m sure Trayvon would, too.”</blockquote>
The most annoying thing about being a black man is constantly having to explain what reason you have for being wherever the fuck you are at a given moment. George Zimmerman tracked Trayvon down because he was unfamiliar. As self-appointment overlord of the neighborhood, he needed to know who this odd black person was. In fact, based on the 911 calls, he needed to know who <em>every</em> unfamiliar black man was. When you’re black and male, you’ve always got a purpose. No one wants you just hanging around. It’s called “loitering,” in case you weren’t aware. No matter what, it would behoove a black man to have a helluva explanation for why he is doing whatever he’s doing. Because, if you wait long enough, someone is going to ask. If you don’t answer quickly enough, the cops will probably be called. And, if you don’t answer quickly enough, you might wish someone had called the cops, cuz they may have been your only hope for walking away unscathed.<br />
<br />
Where’s your ID? Why are you here? Who’d you come to see? Hurry up and get where you’re going. We always have to prove we belong or, in other instances, that we deserve to be where we are.<br />
<br />
In cases like this, we tend to try to figure out if the victim deserved to die. Did he have a weapon? Was he high? Was he behaving in a suspicious way? Was there any reason why someone may have thought, “I need to protect myself?” Or, put more simply, did he have it coming?<br />
<br />
So what would have made it OK to shoot the kid? Or me, for that matter.<br />
<br />
Not to get all self-indulgent, but with a hood on, 6-3, 140 pound Trayvon didn’t look much differently than I would. And I first would have walked quickly, then run. And if Zimmerman got out of his car and came toward me, I’d have swung on him. And then he would have shot me, and I would have been just as dead. Thing is, since I’m a grown man, chances are Zimmerman would have had some marks on his face for the cops to see.<br />
<br />
Would you, after the fact, have then thought it was OK to shoot me?<br />
<br />
For giggles, let’s say that Trayvon’s body was found with a gun nearby. This happened in a town I went to school in many years ago, where Irvin Landrum, Jr.,<a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2000/sep/28/local/me-28012" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #bd9740; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">the victim of a police shooting, was found with a gun nearby</a>. Cops claimed the young man drew down on them. The gun was once registered to a deceased former cop. The district attorney found no evidence the gun was planted, though.<br />
<br />
For a second, forget whether or not the gun was planted. The real question is whether simply having the gun made it OK for cops to shoot this man. By that token, any cop riding in Sanford would have open season on George Zimmerman. He had a gun, after all. But we all know simply having a gun doesn’t mean you deserve to get shot. They wouldn’t license them if that were the case, no?<br />
<br />
Had Trayvon Martin had a gun on him, would it have been OK to shoot him? Not had he pulled it. Just if he had it. Would that have been enough?<br />
<br />
Those are the trickier questions when things like this come up. The biggest reason people feel so comfortable fighting on behalf of Martin and his family is there are no issues like those. He is a perfectly clean victim, the opposite of Rodney King.<br />
<br />
Thing is, it’s not cool to shoot dirty victims for no reason, either. Had Martin been packing with a quarter-ounce of weed in his pocket, George Zimmerman <em>still</em> shouldn’t have followed and shot him. If Martin had a rap sheet long as my arm, there <em>still</em> would have been no reason to end his life. Bottom line: “looking suspicious,” is not probable cause, especially not for some dude who just lives in the damn neighborhood.<br />
<br />
But so many black men look suspicious. The elephant in the room in this case is how mainstream the belief is that black men look “suspicious.” I’ve seen the outrage from many white people — and black ones, for that matter — that this could happen, but not a lick of introspection.<br />
***<br />
It’s not hard to look on the Internet and find black men writing stories about their personal experiences with the police. My sister wrote about what <a href="http://t.co/LxZuWBEa" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #bd9740; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">missing children mean to her as a survivor of the Atlanta Child Murders</a>.<br />
<br />
But is there anyone out there documenting how this case made them realize how scared they truly are of black men? Is there a blog post out there about how someone, like Zimmerman, finds black men suspicious and now realizes how faulty that thinking was? Where are these people who have crossed the street when they’ve seen me coming? Where are the cops talking about how they erroneously hassled young black men, accused them of being gang members, or all the other stuff I’ve had to deal with? Where are the old ladies talking about how they’ve called the cops on guys who may have been doing little more than walking back home?<br />
<br />
I’m personally tired of hearing about how this affects black people. Quite honestly, there’s little for the average black person to learn from this. Most of us know the deal with police. We just know, now, we gotta worry the same about fuckin rent-a-cops. But trust, we knew people were afraid of us. We learn that at a very early age and deal accordingly.<br />
<br />
But <a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/videogallery/68871920/News/George-Zimmerman-911-call-reporting-Trayvon-Martin" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #bd9740; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">listen to Zimmerman on the 911 tape</a>. Listen to how calm he sounds. And listen to how predictable everything he says is (including not even mentioning the black part at first, but it was clear what he was saying). We’ve heard people say stuff like this before because…people say stuff like this. But if you turn on CNN or any other place, you’ll find dozens of people saying this sort of flawed and irrational thinking happens all the time…but not a soul out here saying, “damn, this made me look at myself differently.”<br />
<br />
Once again, we’ve got all this racism…but the only racist to be found is George Zimmerman. Who, as many have gone out of their way to point out, is part-Hispanic. FWIW, his last name is Zimmerman. So there’s that, as if anyone should truly care about either fact.<br />
<br />
Bad news, folks: there’s a great chance you’re part of the problem on this. I’m not judging anyone. We all grew up in this country, surrounded by this racism, bombarded by images from the same media. It takes conscious resistance to avoid judging black people in this country, especially when it comes to men and criminality.<br />
<br />
But please, read through what I wrote here. Think about some of the more basic elements of this story. Then, ask yourself how many of them sound personally familiar. If they do, please change.<br />
<br />
Because just like Trayvon Martin got shot, it could have been me. I may be “famous,” but I wouldn’t make nearly as good of a victim. I’d just be a dead black man, not a boy, and that’s something few seem to care about.</blockquote>Blaque Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08627683764935084863noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8474876861636701647.post-88315268725561665492012-03-06T18:19:00.000-05:002012-03-06T18:19:10.467-05:00I Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="340" style="background-color: whitesmoke; color: #333333; font-family: arial; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; width: 512px;"><tbody>
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<br />Blaque Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08627683764935084863noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8474876861636701647.post-40404827171077199062012-03-05T19:09:00.002-05:002012-03-05T19:23:32.171-05:00Here Comes Another One: Miss Jada Williams!!h/t <a href="http://newblackman.blogspot.com/2012/03/thinking-while-black-jada-williams.html" target="_blank">New Black Man</a><br />
<br />
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<br />
<i>You better do it girl!! </i>Come<i> on! - Blaque Swan</i><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/05/jada-williams-student-allegedly-harassed-for-essay_n_1321926.html" target="_blank">Jada Williams, Student, <strike>Allegedly</strike> Harassed For Award-Winning Essay Comparing School To Modern Slavery </a></b></span></div>(Strike-through mine.)<br />
<blockquote><br />
<a name='more'></a>When Jada Williams, a 13-year-old student at Rochester's School No. 3, wrote an essay making comparisons between a slavemaster discouraging Fredrick Douglas from learning to read and modern education struggles in her district, the teen didn't expect a wave of controversy -- but she ended up switching schools because of it, <a href="http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20120305/OPINION04/303050011">the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reports.</a></blockquote><blockquote>“When I find myself sitting in a crowded classroom where no real instruction is taking place I can say history does repeat itself,” Jada wrote in her essay, according to the Democrat and Chronicle. “I feel like not much has changed. Just different people. Different era. The same old discrimination still resides in the hearts of the white man.”</blockquote><blockquote>Williams said she began to feel singled out by teachers after turning the essay in to her English class, earning "Ds" -- a change from her previous "As. She also said the school's treatment of her changed in general, <a href="http://rochesterhomepage.net/fulltext?nxd_id=303562">the Rochester City Newspaper reports.</a></blockquote><blockquote>"I love to go to school and I feel like they're taking that away from me," Williams told the paper while fighting back tears.</blockquote><blockquote>Her parents transfered her to School No. 19, but after witnessing several fights in the first few days of her attendance, Williams told the City Newspaper she doesn't feel comfortable there either.</blockquote><blockquote>Friday afternoon, Williams and her parents got the apology they've been waiting for.<br />
"We could have responded better," Superintendent Bolgen Vargas said, <a href="http://www.whec.com/news/stories/S2521396.shtml?cat=565">according to WHEC-TV.</a>"This is a situation that was definitely not handled the best way.”</blockquote><blockquote>Vargas went on to say that while the reaction from the teachers is understandable, students should be able to express their opinions at school without fear of punishment. As to whether the teachers who allegedly harassed Williams would be punished, Vargas would not go into detail.</blockquote>Blaque Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08627683764935084863noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8474876861636701647.post-84699938125770597962012-03-02T22:47:00.000-05:002012-03-02T22:48:02.053-05:00Now, the "Man" Is Coming for You, too, Wh*tey!<blockquote>
<a href="http://herecomethatgirl.blogspot.com/2009/06/youre-still-here.html" target="_blank">And to make a point that hard-working white Americans</a> need to hear: <b>the people who saw nothing wrong with loan officers lying both to the client and to the underwriter so the cost of the loan will be higher leading to higher profits for the company and higher bonuses for the loan officer also see nothing wrong with the exorbitant bonuses received by the executives who brought down the global economy</b>. Mark my words chumpy: <i>when shit gets to flying, </i>everybody<i> gets hit</i>. Instead of listening to the idiots who propagate the lie the affirmative action is "reverse" racism, you should be listening to those of us tell you that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."</blockquote>
That's one of my better quotes. Although I'll add here, for the love of all that's good and holy, quit equating white women and people of color to animals and/or fetuses. It's insulting, and it does more harm than good.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
But I digress.<br />
<br />
A lot of white Americans bought into the stereotypes of African Americans as unmotivated, criminal, immoral, etc in part because they never imagined these stereotypes to apply to them in any collective sort of way. Sure, there's "white trash" but most white Americans I imagine never considered themselves "white trash." I mean, just think about it, right? There's the upper class, the middle class, and the . . . <i>working class</i>. "Working class" has become the new euphemism for <i>lower class</i>, not just because there <i>are</i> the <i>working poor</i>, that is, people who have jobs and are <i>still</i> poor, but also because nobody wants to admit they're <i>lower class</i> or "white trash" or what have you.<br />
<br />
But now, after nearly three decades of conservative economic policies has led to the great recession, more and more white Americans can't brush off the fact they're <i>poor</i>, that their economic futures aren't all too secure. Oh, and by the way, <a href="http://herecomethatgirl.blogspot.com/2008/04/advice-for-blue-collar-whites.html" target="_blank">a few of us called it years ago</a>. And guess what? Now that economic inequality has led to the Occupy Wall Street movement; now, when you really have to know that your personal finances aren't necessarily tied to your work ethic, <a href="http://www.salon.com/2012/01/09/when_white_people_lack_bourgeois_values/" target="_blank">rich (white) folks</a> <a href="http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/98656/unemployment-insurance-welfare-gop" target="_blank">are turning on the white</a> <a href="http://www.salon.com/2012/01/30/charles_murray_does_it_again/" target="_blank">working class, too</a>.<br />
<br />
Y'all better wake up, white "working" class. Pres Obama hasn't done anything special for blacks folks. I wish he had! He hasn't. So wake up, use your head, and realize who's really working <i>against</i> your interest. Here's a hint: it's not <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/post/santorum-obama-is-a-snob-because-he-wants-everybody-in-america-to-go-to-college/2012/02/25/gIQATJffaR_blog.html" target="_blank">anyone who thinks wanting other people besides you and your family to go to college makes you a snob</a> <i>or</i> <a href="http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-cohn/101122/romney-detroit-economic-speech-cadillacs-sacrifice" target="_blank">the person who wants to fix the economy by cutting taxes for the rich and the public programs that help . . .<i>you</i></a>. So stop voting for the guy who can feign identifying with you, and support the person who actually has your interests at heart.<br />
<br />
Holla.Blaque Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08627683764935084863noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8474876861636701647.post-62768055095556103732012-02-20T22:34:00.000-05:002012-02-20T23:01:32.849-05:00You Down with O4P?<div class="tr_bq">
Yeah, you know me!</div>
<br />
You down with <a href="http://occupy4prisoners.org/" target="_blank">O4P</a>?<br />
<br />
Yeah, you know me!<br />
<br />
Who's down with <a href="http://occupy4prisoners.org/" target="_blank">O4P</a>?<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.racismreview.com/blog/2012/02/20/new-freedom-riders-take-on-nypd/comment-page-1/#comment-16005" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">Everybody!!</a> [Updated to include <a href="http://www.racismreview.com/blog/2012/02/20/new-freedom-riders-take-on-nypd/comment-page-1/#comment-16005" target="_blank">a link to a fabulous story</a> over at <a href="http://www.racismreview.com/blog" target="_blank"><i>Racism Review</i></a>.]<br />
<br />
Sorry, I got caught up. But <a href="http://occupywallst.org/" target="_blank">Occupy Wall Street</a> has gained my respect. It's not just Wall St they're occupying anymore. No, they're now <a href="http://occupy4prisoners.org/" target="_blank">occupying prisons and jails, too</a>. And the reason I've decided to give them a second thumb's up? <a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1009203478">They've come to realize that:</a><br />
<blockquote>
<a href="http://occupywallst.org/article/f20-national-occupy-day-support-prisoners-statemen/" target="_blank">Mass incarceration is the new Jim Crow.</a> Between 1970 and 1995, the incarceration of African Americans increased 7 times. Currently African Americans make up 12 % of the population in the U.S. but 53% of the nation’s prison population. There are more African Americans under correctional control today—in prison or jail, on probation or parole—than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began.<br />
<br />
The prison system is the most visible example of policies of punitive containment of the most marginalized and oppressed in our society. Prior to incarceration, 2/3 of all prisoners lived in conditions of economic hardship. While the perpetrators of white-collar crime largely go free.</blockquote>
<br />
<a name='more'></a>And <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elizabeth-weillgreenberg/occupy-prisons_b_1287687.html" target="_blank">there's more to the story</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The U.S. has the world's highest documented <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States#Comparison_with_other_countries">incarceration rate</a>. (Russia is second, Rwanda is third.) <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michelle-alexander/the-new-jim-crow_b_454469.html">More blacks </a>are under correctional control today than were enslaved in 1850. These unprecedented rates of incarceration have helped turn the two largest for-profit prison corporations, Corrections Corporation of America and GEO Group, into billion-dollar companies, according to <a href="http://publicampaign.org/reports/unholyalliance">Unholy Alliance</a>, a report released in November 2011 by Public Campaign and PICO National Network.</blockquote>
And as much as I distrust white people when it comes to race, when someone speaks the truth, I give them all the props they deserve. In this case, the white someone,<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/russell-simmons/occupy-the-dream-the-math_b_1207767.html" target="_blank"> in collaboration with Russell Simmons, is Dylan Ratigan. They make the case that</a>:<br />
<blockquote>
Putting people in jail and keeping them there is good for business. So that's what these companies lobby for. According to <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/06/23/251363/cca-geogroup-prison-industry/?mobile=nc">the Justice Policy Institute</a>, these companies "have contributed $835,514 to federal candidates and over $6 million to state politicians. They have also spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on direct lobbying efforts." They are large donors to state-based think tanks like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), who market harsh immigration, drug laws, and prison privatization laws to state level politicians around the country. While the rationale is no longer outright bigotry, the net effect, in terms of stripping millions of blacks of political and economic rights, is the same.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
This is the face of racism today. It isn't the racist sheriff in Alabama turning hoses and dogs onto protesters, or the all-white development or country club, but the smooth lobbyist and campaign contributor discussing the efficiency of private prison initiatives or the politician too cowardly to act on decriminalizing marijuana for fear of antagonizing a powerful lobby. It's racism, <a href="http://www.greedybastards.com/">Greedy-Bastards-style</a>.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
What's the alternative? David Kennedy, the director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, has highlighted a very simple common sense approach known as hotspotting. He advocates for sitting down the gang members that perpetrate most of the violence, police, prosecutors, and community leaders to talk about their shared problems and the consequences of crime. Such an approach has dramatically reduced homicide rates in Boston and Chicago, and across the country. Yet these programs and programs like them with proven success in reducing crime are the first to go on the chopping block, because they don't provide the budgetary incentive that forfeiture laws do.</blockquote>
Major props.<br />
<br />
If you get the chance, you really need to check out the links.<br />
<br />
Much love. Stay <i>down</i>!Blaque Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08627683764935084863noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8474876861636701647.post-30479702491303097642012-02-18T23:44:00.000-05:002012-02-18T23:44:21.720-05:00Forced Deportation. Sound Familiar?<blockquote>
<a href="http://www.blackcommentator.com/459/459_aw_apology.php">An Apology Ceremony That We Need to Publicize<br />
</a><br />
By Bill Fletcher, Jr.<br />
BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board<br />
Feruary 16, 2012<br />
<br />
On February 26th, a ceremony is to take place in California apologizing to the approximately 400,000 people of Mexican ancestry who were deported from the USA in a spate of ethnic cleansing that gripped the USA during the Depression. What is at stake in this ceremony is not only the apology but what it says about racism and ethnic cleansing in times of economic crisis.<br />
<br />
Approximately two million people of Mexican ancestry were deported from the USA during the Depression. This was not only Mexican nationals, but Chicanos as well, i.e., US citizens of Mexican ancestry. This was a blatant example of ethnic cleansing taking place in the USA which destroyed families and exiled family members, in some cases indefinitely.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
As with many cases of mass trauma, this deportation process was ignored in the general public. The "Repatriados," as those who were deported were referenced, existed in a twilight zone. Those who were able to return often did not speak of it and families that remained stuck in Mexico had to begin entirely new lives. It was the work of people like Detroit activist Elena Herrada and the Fronteras Nortenas organization that helped to re-raise the issue, not only in California but also throughout the USA.<br />
<br />
The 1930s, as a period, is often viewed as one of increasingly progressive change. While there is certainly some truth in this, the change was far from linear and far from complete. When it came to race, intense white supremacy was alive and well. And even many progressive organizations failed to speak up in the face of such horrors. Mexicans and Chicanos were being attacked in a wave of a specific form of anti-immigrant mania. In a period of an intense economic crisis, Mexicans and Chicanos were blamed for allegedly taking the jobs of (white) Americans. Nothing comparable was done to immigrants of European ancestry and it was only a few short years later - 1942 - that in the midst of a particular response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans were interned for the remainder of the war (compared to the treatment of US citizens of German and Italian ancestry).<br />
<br />
One does not have to jump too far to see the relevance of this historical horror to our situation today. Just the other day, I was grabbed by an African American in an airport who recognized me from my TransAfrica Forum days. Among other things he wanted to say to me was the matter of immigrants, and particularly about the competition that is created through immigration. He refused to look at the big picture but his conclusions were clear enough that he did not need to express them: remove the immigrants.<br />
<br />
Yet, just as the Great Depression was not caused by Mexicans and Chicanos, today's economic crisis, and specifically the massive economic crisis faced by African Americans, is not the result of immigrants, be they documented or undocumented. It has to do with the system, and unfortunately too many of us seem to be afraid that identifying the system is the equivalent of looking into the face of the Gorgon, turning us to stone. Thus, for right-wing populists and for too many of our own people, it is easier to blame the immigrant for our suffering than to recognize that capitalism will use whoever it can to weaken the power of working people. It used us in the period around World War I (and after) as a cheap labor source, and it has used successive groups. The mass, indiscriminate deportation of two million people of Mexican ancestry was just one implication of this racist irrationalism.<br />
<br />
What's to prevent this from happening again?<br />
_____________<br />
<br />
BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member, Bill Fletcher, Jr., is a Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies, the immediate past president of TransAfricaForum and co-author of Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path toward Social Justice (University of California Press), which examines the crisis of organized labor in the USA.</blockquote>Blaque Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08627683764935084863noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8474876861636701647.post-87282922734932877612012-02-18T16:30:00.001-05:002012-02-18T16:31:15.160-05:00If the "New Rule" Fits . . .<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="421" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://videos.mediaite.com/embed/player/?content=SJJRWJ04LKSJ6HGY&layout=&content_type=content_item&playlist_cid=&media_type=video&read_more=1&widget_type_cid=svp" width="420"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
If I find a clip with better sound, I'll post it.Blaque Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08627683764935084863noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8474876861636701647.post-58303579672452319892012-01-30T15:08:00.000-05:002012-01-30T15:08:13.967-05:00The Political Party What Keeps Crying "Voter Fraud"<blockquote>
<a href="http://www.free-times.com/index.php?cat=1992209084141467&act=post&pid=11862501123771274" target="_blank">UPDATE II:Free Times</a> has confirmed that the six names examined by the State Election Commission came from the list SLED is investigating.</blockquote>
Yeah, that's the 2nd update. Can you imagine <a href="http://www.free-times.com/index.php?cat=1992209084141467&act=post&pid=11862501123771274">the first update and the original story</a>? It all boils down to this: despite all evidence to the contrary, Republicans insist on crying voter fraud in order justify voter suppression. That's all it is and will ever be.<br />
<br />
And while we're at it, let's scrap this whole "save taxpayers' money" meme, too. After all, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/justice-dept-rejects-south-carolina-voter-id-law-calling-it-discriminatory/2011/12/23/gIQAhLJAEP_story.html" target="_blank">the US DoJ used Provision 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act to block the law</a>, and <a href="http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2012/jan/29/states-lawsuit-over-voter-id-could-cost-more-than/" target="_blank">fighting the DoJ on this issue, especially since SC is hiring a private attorney at $520 an hour, is estimated to cost $1million</a>.<br />
<br />
And to add insult to injury, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/justice-dept-rejects-south-carolina-voter-id-law-calling-it-discriminatory/2011/12/23/gIQAhLJAEP_story.html" target="_blank">SC Gov. Nikki Haley (R) is raising the banner of "10th Amendment rights"</a>! What the what?! Just in case you <i>didn't</i> know, this is why minorities, especially black folks, don't hop on the whole "states' rights" and "local government" bandwagon.Blaque Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08627683764935084863noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8474876861636701647.post-88831767503194114932012-01-27T18:10:00.002-05:002012-01-27T18:11:46.564-05:00Answer: Number of Years Black Americans Have Actually Been FreeQuestion: <a href="http://www.sojo.net/blogs/2012/01/26/racial-jeopardy-and-american-politics" target="_blank">What is 47?</a><br />
<br />
Read more here: <a href="http://www.sojo.net/blogs/2012/01/26/racial-jeopardy-and-american-politics" target="_blank">Racial Jeopardy and American Politics</a><br />
by Lisa Sharon HarperBlaque Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08627683764935084863noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8474876861636701647.post-23620398207721182772011-12-09T12:17:00.001-05:002011-12-09T12:40:05.251-05:00You vs James Crowe, II and Poll Taxes v2.0You wanna do more than <a href="http://herecomethatgirl.blogspot.com/2011/12/stop-corporate-funded-voter-suppression.html" target="_blank">sign an online petition</a>? (Not hating on online petitions. I signed it.) You live near NYC? Here's something you can do:<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1861281689"><br /></a><br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1861281689">December 10: Stand For Freedom March in NYC</a><br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1861281689"><br /></a><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1861281689"><img border="0" height="216" src="http://action.naacp.org/page/-/latino_marchers.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr>
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<a name='more'></a><blockquote>
<a href="http://www.stand4freedom.org/" target="_blank"><br />This year, two-thirds</a> of state legislatures have introduced laws that undermine the right to vote. Early voting and Sunday voting are under attack, photo ID requirements will introduce the first financial and document barrier to voting since the poll tax, and racially-motivated bans on ex-felons will wipe tens of thousands off the rolls<br />
.<br />
This effort is unprecedented, it is coordinated, and it is targeted. African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, students, working women, seniors and immigrants of all colors will be disproportionately affected.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
The right to vote is the heart of our democracy. Throughout our history Americans have been murdered for defending this basic human right. We will not let it be taken away from millions today.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<strong style="font-weight: bold;">Join us on Saturday, December 10th—</strong>The United Nations’ Human Rights Day—to proclaim to America and the world: </blockquote>
<blockquote style="text-align: center;">
<strong style="font-weight: bold;">It’s time to Stand for Freedom. We must protect our right to vote.</strong></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<strong style="font-weight: bold;">Assembly and March Information</strong></div>
<ul>
<li>10:30 am to 11:30 am: assemble 61st St. and Madison Ave., the Koch brothers' NYC office.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>11:30 am: March from 61st St. and Madison Ave. to Dag Hammarskjold Plaza at 47th St. and 2nd Ave.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>12:30 pm: Rally at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza across from the United Nations.</li>
</ul>
<em>**For additional details about the December 10 rally, please visit our <strong style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.stand4freedom.org/pages/stand-for-freedom-march-logistics" style="color: #607890;">Stand For Freedom Logistics</a></strong> page.</em></blockquote>
<div style="color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">
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</div>Blaque Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08627683764935084863noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8474876861636701647.post-25157691483795582062011-12-08T22:50:00.001-05:002011-12-09T12:37:09.798-05:00Stop Corporate Funded Voter Suppression (Updated)Update (h/t <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CREDO" target="_blank">Credo Mobile</a> <i>- That's their Facebook page.</i>) -<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/campaigns/advocates-companies-cant-support-black-consumers-and-those-pushing-restrictive-voting-laws/2011/12/08/gIQAMHXGgO_story.html" target="_blank">Advocates: Companies can’t support black consumers and those pushing restrictive voting laws</a> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
An online advocacy group is urging corporations that market to African-Americans to stop giving money to a conservative organization working for stricter voting laws.
The group, ColorofChange, is targeting companies that support the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, a nonprofit that has helped states pass photo ID laws, which are criticized by minority and civil rights groups. Its members include legislators and corporations, who pay higher fees to join.
</blockquote>
<br />
This is <i>really</i> important.<br />
<br />
via <a href="http://colorofchange.org/" target="_blank">Color of Change</a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_702746335"><img border="0" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.colorofchange.org/images/voting.jpg" /></a></div>
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_702746335"><br /></a><br />
<blockquote>
<a href="http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/alec?akid=2314.918657.s7nUhr&rd=1&t=4" target="_blank">For years, the right wing has been trying to stop Black people</a>, other people of color, young people, and the elderly from voting — and now some of America’s biggest companies are helping them do it. These companies have helped pass discriminatory voter ID legislation by funding a right wing policy group called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).<br />
<br />
ALEC’s voter ID laws are undemocratic, unjust and part of a longstanding right wing agenda to weaken the Black vote. Major companies that rely on business from Black folks shouldn’t be involved in suppressing our vote. Please join us in demanding that these companies stop funding ALEC.<br />
<br />
Here's the letter we'll send to the leadership of corporations that support ALEC, on your behalf. You can add a personal comment using the box to the right.*<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
Dear President/CEO and Board,<br />
<br />
I want to alert you to the fact that the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) – which your company funds – is pushing discriminatory voter ID legislation that suppresses the votes of blacks, the elderly, youth and other minorities. Bills based on ALEC’s model legislation have been introduced in 34 states, and have already passed in seven states.<br />
<br />
Although proponents of voter ID laws claim the goal is to reduce voter fraud, there is no evidence that such fraud occurs with any regularity in this country. What is clear is that these voter ID laws unreasonably increase barriers to voting access for large numbers of people and could disenfranchise up to 5 million people across the nation. These laws are part of a long history of racist and discriminatory restrictions on voting designed to disenfranchise African Americans and other underrepresented groups.<br />
<br />
I presume your company does not want to support voter suppression, nor have your products or services associated with discrimination and large-scale voter disenfranchisement. I urge you to immediately stop funding ALEC and issue a public statement making it clear that your company does not support discriminatory voter ID laws and voter suppression.<br />
<br />
Sincerely,<br />
<br />
[Your name]</blockquote>
<br /></blockquote>
*A comment box is provided on <a href="http://act.colorofchange.org/sign/alec?akid=2314.918657.s7nUhr&rd=1&t=4" target="_blank">the petition webpage</a>.Blaque Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08627683764935084863noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8474876861636701647.post-75163034594311897622011-12-02T17:15:00.001-05:002011-12-08T23:04:00.444-05:00Reading, Writing, and Walking Out!<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/01/garfield-high-school-students-walk-out-of-class_n_1123820.html?ref=education&icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl1%7Csec3_lnk3%7C117229" target="_blank">After the Washington state government proposed in</a> a special legislative session to cut education funding as a way to close a $2 billion budget gap, hundreds of students from Garfield High School walked out of class in protest, the </span><em style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><a href="http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/2011/11/30/photos-garfield-high-school-students-walk-out-protest-education-cuts/" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #c68700; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_hplink">Seattle Post Intelligencer</a></em><a href="http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/2011/11/30/photos-garfield-high-school-students-walk-out-protest-education-cuts/" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #c68700; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;" target="_hplink">reports.</a></blockquote>
See what happens when you stop funding education? You start losing R's.Blaque Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08627683764935084863noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8474876861636701647.post-11441773125713095152011-11-19T15:27:00.000-05:002011-11-19T15:49:06.357-05:00Occupy Your School! What!<i>Vanilla ice cream, Cadillac car.</i><br />
<i>We're not as dumb as you think we is!</i><br />
-black comedian whose name I can't remember. I would've made that the title, but you can see how long that is.<br />
<blockquote>
<b><a href="http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/11/bronx_high_school_students_occupy_education_system_relase_10-point_plan_for_school_district.html" target="_blank">Bronx Students Occupy Public Education, Release 10-Point Plan</a></b></blockquote>
<blockquote>
A group of young activists from the Bronx called say they’re being deprived of a quality education, and they’re prepared to fight for something better.<br />
<a name='more'></a></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/theresistanceforeducation" target="_blank">The Resistance</a>, which was formed through a youth arts organization called <a href="http://dreamyard.com/" target="_blank">The DreamYard A.C.T.I.O.N Project</a>, have developed a 10-point education platform for New York City public schools. The group has also launched a <a href="http://www.facebook.com/theresistanceforeducation" target="_blank">Facebook page to support their efforts</a>.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
They’re <a href="https://www.facebook.com/theresistanceforeducation?sk=info" target="_blank">demanding the following reforms:</a></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>We demand free quality education as a right guaranteed by the US Constitution.
</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>We demand the dismantling of Bloomberg’s Panel for Educational Policy. </li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>We demand a new 13 member community board to run our public schools (comprised of parents, educators, education experts, community members, and a minimum of 5 student representatives).
</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>We demand quality instruction. Teachers should ethnically, culturally, and racially reflect the student body.</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>We demand experienced teachers who have a history of teaching students well. Teacher training should be intensive and include an apprenticeship with master teachers as well as experiences with the communities where the school is located.</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>We demand stronger extra-curricular activities to help stimulate and spark interest in students. Students should have options, opportunities, and choice in their education.
We demand a healthy, safe environment that does not expect our failure or anticipate our criminality.</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>We demand a school culture that acknowledges our humanity (free of metal detectors, untrained and underpaid security guards, and abusive tactics).</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>We demand that all NYC public school communities foster structured and programmatic community building so that students, teachers, and staff learn in an environment that is respectful and safe for all.</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>We demand small classes. Class sizes should be humane and productive. We demand that the student to teacher ratio for a mainstream classroom should be no more than 15:1.</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>We demand student assessments and evaluations that reflect the variety of ways that we learn and think (portfolio assessments, thesis defenses, anecdotal evaluations, written exams). Student success should not depend solely on high stakes testing.</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>We demand a stop to the attack on our schools. If a school is deemed “failing”, we demand a team of qualified and diverse experts to assess how such schools can improve and the resources to improve them.</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>We demand fiscal equity for NYC public schools: as stated in the Education Budget and Reform Act of 2007 by the NYS Legislature, NYC public schools have been inadequately and inequitably funded. </li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>We demand the legislatively mandated $7 billion dollars in increased annual state education aid to be delivered to our schools now!</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>Blaque Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08627683764935084863noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8474876861636701647.post-85072334297093411632011-11-15T13:40:00.001-05:002011-11-15T17:15:42.068-05:00Has Columbus Just Discovered Injustice, Too?Yes, it could be that I've spent too much time discussing <a href="http://www.racismreview.com/blog/2011/11/11/capitalism-systemic-racism-part-2/" target="_blank">global capitalism's reliance on racism and</a> <a href="http://www.racismreview.com/blog/2011/11/06/does-capitalism-systemic-racism/" target="_blank">the oppression and exploitation of people of color.</a> Organizations and people who advocate for people of color and the poor, like <a href="http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-11-17/columns/the-gop-s-other-election-victory/" target="_blank">ACORN</a>, have been <a href="http://herecomethatgirl.blogspot.com/2009/09/its-not-racist-but.html" target="_blank">dismantled, disparaged, and dismissed</a>. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jayne-lyn-stahl/missing-in-action_1_b_76324.html" target="_blank">The Rev. Jesse Jackson led a march on Wall St as early as December 2007</a>. (Boy, has it catch on!)<br />
<br />
But now that the shit has hit the fan, and white unemployment is as high <i>now,</i> during this economic crisis, as black unemployment was <i>low</i> in 2007, you see fit to organize and Occupy Wall St. Now that even you, average white American, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/14/occupy-oakland-raided-police_n_1092649.html" target="_blank">can be knocked around</a> - <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/08/local/la-me-bart-verdict-20100709" target="_blank">but not shot and killed while handcuffed</a> - by the police, you want to <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/01/occupy-wall-street-protesters-police-brutality" target="_blank">protest police brutality</a>.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
Great. Fine. Good. Finally!<br />
<br />
But I really, <i>really</i> hope you're not just finding out that people in power can both break the law <i>and</i> use the law against you, are you? Is <a href="http://www.salon.com/2011/11/15/a_police_raid_suffused_with_symbolism/?source=newsletter" target="_blank">"today <i>really</i>... the most vivid expression seen in quite some time of the two-tiered justice system . . .; the real criminals are not only shielded from the law’s mandates, but affirmatively use it as an instrument to entrench themselves in power and protect their ill-gotten gains"</a> (emphasis mine)? I guess I can cut Gllen Greenwald some slack. After all, he did qualify his statement with "in quite some time." And he is a civil rights attorney. And since he was talking specifically of NYC . . . well, I guess I can see how people blinded by their own privilege need things spelled out for them.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, though, I hope "quite some time" doesn't mean "since the 60s." Cause black folks see a million different variations of this <i>expression</i> everyday. White America will jump through all sort of hoops - some on fire, others electrified - to maintain their privilege. Be it economic, political (as with the new crusade for voter IDs), or simply social. I'm sorry. Maybe I've been spending too much time thinking of the way America's wealth was created by the still unpaid labor of African slaves, but I can't believe the audacity of white America. Or even how so many want to go back to life as it was in the 50s, what with the government underwriting the expansion of the white middle class even as de jure and de facto racism keeps people of color "kettled." All that government assistance, the VA loans, the GI bill scholarships, the USDA loans to farmers - all of that was okay until the dreads 60s, when people of color would be able to get their fair piece of the pie.<br />
<br />
It's like nothing really exists, no problem in wealth and income distribution, no problem with police actions, no problem with the status quo being protected even with violence, least of all not major hindrances based on race - none of that is a problem until it happens to a white person. And it's just incredibly frustrating to be <i>vividly</i> ignored.<br />
<br />
I mean, once the economic calms down, and white unemployment goes back under 5%, will the Occupiers return to their lives while those of us who've been historically occupied remain to suffer?Blaque Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08627683764935084863noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8474876861636701647.post-83946904772889632682011-08-22T21:16:00.000-04:002011-08-22T21:16:04.212-04:00"The Help": the True Story<blockquote>What is needed is a<a href="http://theladnerreportblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/no-thanks-kathryn-stockett-i-dont-want.html"> book by a maid or a group of maids on the white people</a> they work for.</blockquote>I know, right! I came across this via the <a href="https://lists.virginia.edu/sympa/info/sncc-list">sncc listserve</a>:<br />
<blockquote><a href="http://theladnerreportblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/no-thanks-kathryn-stockett-i-dont-want.html">No thanks Kathryn Stockett, I don't want to be "The Help"</a><br />
<br />
I was a maid in high school. I cleaned white peoples houses on Saturdays and after school. I cleaned, washed and ironed clothes and waxed the kitchen floor for $3.00 and twenty cents, the latter being for bus fare. I came from a family of nine children so this was the only way I could make spending money. There were no fast food places like McDonald's during the fifties for had they existed I would have had a part-time job at one of them to get spending money.<br />
<br />
There is nothing glorious about cleaning up after dirty people and nothing like being exploited by people who don't give a damn about you. I have written about this in my memoir that I am almost finished writing. Maids are invisible and their lives are invisible to their white employers. When I was fourteen, I quit a job when the white girl who was my age DEMANDED that I wash her blood stained underwear from her menstrual period. When her mother came home from work she told her that I refused to do so and her Mother lit into me saying I thought I was too good to wash these clothes. Before I left that day I made sure that the pancakes Jo Lee demanded that I make for her included dirty dishwater instead of water or milk, and I fried them with the ring of grease around their nasty kitchen sink instead of lard. Jo Lee praised me for making what she described as the best pancakes she'd ever eaten.<br />
<br />
As I stood there and watched her eat, I felt vindicated because I had gotten her back in the only way I felt I could. Had I verbally lashed out at her in a tit for tat her mother could have had me arrested for being uppity or she could have done so on some trumped up charges. It was not inconceivable that her mother could have had some mean men torch our home. I never took pride in what I did but as I held back my salty tears that Saturday morning I couldn't think of any other way to fight back for being called a Nigger and being told that I "had" to wash her soiled underwear. "Who do you think you are?" she had demanded. "You think you too good to wash my clothes? You're just a Nigger!" she shouted. My regret that day was that I couldn't tell her that I had fed her dirty dishwater and grease from the sink.<br />
<br />
A year later when Jo Lee and I were fifteen years old , I heard from my neighbor who sent me to work at Jo Lee's home that she had gotten married because she was pregnant. She and her high school drop-out husband were living in a shotgun house in the white people's poor section of town. Can you imagine Jo Lee writing a book about me, my feelings, dreams, thoughts, aspirations and goals? Can you imagine Jo Lee being able to step out of her role of racial superiority long enough to give voice to me and my family? Could Jo Lee ever be interested in where and how I lived, went to school, who my friends were, what we did for recreation, what I studied in school, etc.? Absolutely not. The culture did not allow for a bi-lateral relationship in which this could have occurred. Therefore, how can Kathryn Stockett get inside the head of her characters and truly understand them except from her unilateral and imaginary perspective? She said as much when she said she didn't know anything about her family's maid outside the work environment when she was growing up, and she didn't question it. <br />
<br />
It was a rare white employer who had enough humane interest to know the backgrounds and interests of their maids and other black employees. My grandmother was a case in point. For as long as I can remember she worked for a white family. They owned a furniture store. The woman stayed at home and the man operated the furniture store. My grandmother cooked, cleaned, and raised their son and daughter. I was so humiliated as a child when my grandmother went to the daughter's wedding and was seated alone in the balcony. She bought a new dress, hat, purse, shoes and gloves for this occasion and was as proud as a biological mother because she had been the mother to these two children--Joann and Johnny. I remember telling her that I was going to college so I wouldn't have to be a maid. I loved my grandmother very much and I respected her. She was a kind, decent, caring and giving woman to all of us kids and to everyone else.<br />
<br />
But my grandmother was stuck in the role of maid because that was the only kind of work she could get. She made $3.00 a day plus bus fare. I was astounded to learn that from this small salary she saved enough money for my cousin that she raised to attend nursing school at Dillard in New Orleans. My grandmother was very disappointed and sad when my cousin chose marriage over college. You see, my grandmother wanted my cousin to achieve what she hadn't been able to accomplish. She wanted to have the vicarious satisfaction of achievement and she wanted my cousin to have a better life than her own. I always regretted that she was denied this because of my cousin's personal choice. So many of our forebears sacrificed so that we could be nurses and teachers instead of maids. Which brings me back to Jo Lee and her racist mother, who called me a Nigger when she got home from work because Jo Lee told her I refused to wash her underwear. She threatened to fire me but that was unnecessary because I had no intention of going back to that job. Although their words stung but didn't break me. I knew I was not a Nigger and I knew that they were one step up from being poor white trash even though the mother was a secretary for a lawyer. She was also his paramour. If anything, their actions caused me to have a stronger resolve to go to college so that I would not have to be a maid. <br />
<br />
As I read Kathryn Stockett's book, I was reminded that I knew a lot about Jo Lee and her divorced mother and they knew nothing about me because their white skin privilege made them view me as invisible, a non entity, and if they had to consider me at all, they saw me as inferior, as a nobody. All the maids I knew were familiar with the intimate details of the families for whom they worked. This has been the case since slavery when black women worked in the houses of white people....cooked, cleaned their houses, wet nursed their babies...then their employers turned around and called them dirty and lazy. How can you entrust someone with cooking your food and raising your children and then, like a schizophrenic, make a 180 degree turn and look on them as inferior, alien, and not worthy of knowing anything about them, or humanizing them? This is the history of black people in America... it is the history of black domestic workers. It is why my father told my mother that she would never work for white people. He saw how his mother's employers tried to dehumanize her by commission and omission. <br />
<br />
What is needed is a book by a maid or a group of maids on the white people they work for. Now that's a book that would probably be a lot more accurate and insightful, and the dialect would be correct too. Every time I read one of Kathryn Stockett's "I'm on" instead of Imma, or I'm gonna" I got irritated. I hated it when she spelled "Eula Mae" as "Yule Mae". I got downright angry when she described the husbands of at least three maids as no count men who had gone off and left their families. At the same time, the white men in Stockett's world aren't absent or "no count" because they have professional jobs, leisure time, and they have enough money to build separate toilets for their maids. God forbid that a black maid who cooks their food would ever be allowed to use the same toilet the white people use. I guess this explains the fixation segregationists had with toilets.... for in so many public places there were four. One each for black women, black men, white women, and white men. It's no wonder they didn't have money for libraries and good schools. It was all spent making sure that no black person would ever sit on the same toilet a white behind had graced.<br />
<br />
I have thought about my conflict with Jo Lee over the years. I have never taken pride in watching her eat pancakes made with dirty dishwater. It was not my finest young hour but racism had a way of dehumanizing everyone. In the absence of racism she and I could have been equals and friends. But discrimination allowed me to be exploited and her to behave in the worst way. I was too young to be a maid and she was too young to be giving me orders. Kathryn Stockett didn't deal with the dirty and raw outcome of discrimination. The people who populate her book and movie are viewed through rose colored glasses where everyone gets along.<br />
<br />
Stockett's book has sold millions of copies and made her a very wealthy woman. The movie will make her even more wealthy and will bring her greater status. However, Hollywood would never have given this opportunity to a black author who wrote about black maids in white households especially in the turbulent South during the struggle for civil rights. Moreover, there is no reason to rejoice in the good old times black servants and white employers. The national marketing frenzy for The Help movie has gone wild. It even includes a full day of marketing products on the Home Shopping Network (HSN). The New Orleans chef Emeril has a new line of cooking pots and pans in honor of The Help. Think of how silly this is: to celebrate maid-ing and maid-hood when women made $3.00 a day toiling over pots and pans on hot stoves. No thanks Miz Stockett. I refuse to go back there.</blockquote>Blaque Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08627683764935084863noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8474876861636701647.post-60832064679961800522011-08-13T01:24:00.002-04:002011-08-14T23:24:06.439-04:00An Open Letter to Fans of The Help (Updated)Update - Here's another explanation of how I feel: <a href="http://www.artscriticatl.com/2011/08/film-review-the-help-a-feel-good-movie-for-white-people/">“The Help,” a feel-good movie for white people.</a><br />
<blockquote>Like the novel on which it’s based, the movie adaptation of “The Help” will likely be a huge hit with white audiences. But for black viewers it is condescending and frequently insulting, despite admirable performances by Davis and Spencer, who bring a measure of complexity — actual flesh and blood — to the characters of Aibileen and Minny. It speaks volumes about the ongoing racial chasm in this country that a feel-good movie for white people will leave many black filmgoers feeling sad — and pessimistic that America can ever become anything more than “a nation of cowards.”</blockquote>Thank you, <a href="http://www.artscriticatl.com/2011/08/film-review-the-help-a-feel-good-movie-for-white-people/">Valerie Boyd</a>.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
h/t Portside, which shared <i>this </i>link: <a href="http://www.theroot.com/buzz/black-female-historians-slam-help">Black Female Historians Slam 'The Help.'</a><br />
<br />
Uh, yeah. At first, I didn't care to see the movie because I've had my fill of white savior movies and black stories being told by whites. But now that I think about it, I took "Black women's history" sophomore year at university. <i>The Help</i> is not what I learned.<br />
<br />
Oh, and by the by, I'm a black woman and historian, too! I'm going to see about joining this association, <a href="http://www.abwh.org/">the Association of Black Women Historians</a>. Here's their statement:<br />
<blockquote><a href="http://www.abwh.org/images/pdf/TheHelp-Statement.pdf">An Open Statement to the Fans of <i>The Help</i>:</a><br />
<blockquote>On behalf of the Association of Black Women Historians (ABWH), this statement provides historical context to address widespread stereotyping presented in both the film and novel version of <i>The Help</i>. The book has sold over three million copies, and heavy promotion of the movie will ensure its success at the box office. Despite efforts to market the book and the film as a progressive story of triumph over racial injustice, <i>The Help</i> distorts, ignores, and trivializes the experiences of black domestic workers. We are specifically concerned about the representations of black life and the lack of attention given to sexual harassment and civil rights activism.<br />
<br />
During the 1960s, the era covered in <i>The Help</i>, legal segregation and economic inequalities limited black women's employment opportunities. Up to 90 per cent of working black women in the South labored as domestic servants in white homes. <i>The Help</i>’s representation of these women is a disappointing resurrection of Mammy—a mythical stereotype of black women who were compelled, either by slavery or segregation, to serve white families. Portrayed as asexual, loyal, and contented caretakers of whites, the caricature of Mammy allowed mainstream America to ignore the systemic racism that bound black women to back-breaking, low paying jobs where employers routinely exploited them. The popularity of this most recent iteration is troubling because it reveals a contemporary nostalgia for the days when a black woman could only hope to clean the White House rather than reside in it.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Both versions of <i>The Help</i> also misrepresent African American speech and culture. Set in the South, the appropriate regional accent gives way to a child-like, over-exaggerated “black” dialect. In the film, for example, the primary character, Aibileen, reassures a young white child that, “You is smat, you is kind, you is important.” In the book, black women refer to the Lord as the “Law,” an irreverent depiction of black vernacular. For centuries, black women and men have drawn strength from their community institutions. The black family, in particular provided support and the validation of personhood necessary to stand against adversity. We do not recognize the black community described in <i>The Help </i>where most of the black male characters are depicted as drunkards, abusive, or absent. Such distorted images are misleading and do not represent the historical realities of black masculinity and manhood.<br />
<br />
Furthermore, African American domestic workers often suffered sexual harassment as well as physical and verbal abuse in the homes of white employers. For example, a recently discovered letter written by Civil Rights activist Rosa Parks indicates that she, like many black domestic workers, lived under the threat and sometimes reality of sexual assault. The film, on the other hand, makes light of black women’s fears and vulnerabilities turning them into moments of comic relief.<br />
<br />
Similarly, the film is woefully silent on the rich and vibrant history of black Civil Rights activists in Mississippi. Granted, the assassination of Medgar Evers, the first Mississippi based field secretary of the NAACP, gets some attention. However, Evers’ assassination sends Jackson’s black community frantically scurrying into the streets in utter chaos and disorganized confusion—a far cry from the courage demonstrated by the black men and women who continued his fight. Portraying the most dangerous racists in 1960s Mississippi as a group of attractive, well dressed, society women, while ignoring the reign of terror perpetuated by the Ku Klux Klan and the White Citizens Council, limits racial injustice to individual acts of meanness.<br />
<br />
We respect the stellar performances of the African American actresses in this film. Indeed, this statement is in no way a criticism of their talent. It is, however, an attempt to provide context for this popular rendition of black life in the Jim Crow South. In the end, <i>The Help</i> is not a story about the millions of hardworking and dignified black women who labored in white homes to support their families and communities. Rather, it is the coming-of-age story of a white protagonist, who uses myths about the lives of black women to make sense of her own. The Association of Black Women Historians finds it unacceptable for either this book or this film to strip black women’s lives of historical accuracy for the sake of entertainment.<br />
<br />
Ida E. Jones is National Director of ABWH and Assistant Curator at Howard University. Daina Ramey Berry, Tiffany M. Gill, and Kali Nicole Gross are Lifetime Members of ABWH and Associate Professors at the University of Texas at Austin. Janice Sumler-Edmond is a Lifetime Member of ABWH and is a Professor at Huston-Tillotson University.<br />
<br />
Suggested Reading:<br />
Fiction:<br />
<i>Like one of the Family: Conversations from A Domestic’s Life</i>, Alice Childress<br />
<i>The Book of the Night Women</i> by Marlon James <br />
<i>Blanche on the Lam</i> by Barbara Neeley<br />
<i>The Street</i> by Ann Petry <br />
<i>A Million Nightingales</i> by Susan Straight <br />
<br />
Non-Fiction:<br />
<i>Out of the House of Bondage: The Transformation of the Plantation Household</i> by Thavolia Glymph<br />
<i>To Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women’s Lives and Labors</i> by Tera Hunter<br />
<i>Labor of Love Labor of Sorrow: Black Women, Work, and the Family, from Slavery to the Present</i> by Jacqueline Jones<br />
<i>Living In, Living Out: African American Domestics and the Great Migration</i> by Elizabeth Clark-Lewis<br />
<i>Coming of Age in Mississippi </i>by Anne Moody<br />
<br />
Any questions, comments, or interview requests can be sent to: <a href="mailto:ABWHTheHelp@gmail.com">ABWHTheHelp@gmail.com</a></blockquote></blockquote>Blaque Swanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08627683764935084863noreply@blogger.com0