Race Is a Biological Concept(?)

In Chicago in 1980, black and white 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?
. . .

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.

Check out this article in Boston Review by Anne Fausto-Sterling: Bodies with Histories: The New Search for the Biology of Race.

In it, Fausto Sterling reviews these three important and thought-provoking books:

• Richard C. Francis, Epigenetics: The Ultimate Mystery of Inheritance. W. W. Norton, $25.95 (cloth)
• Ann Morning, The Nature of Race: How Scientists Think and Teach about Human Difference. University of California Press, $26.95 (paper)
• Dorothy Roberts, Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-first Century. New Press, $29.95 (cloth)

Extreme Sport: Being Black

Before getting to the Chad Holley situation, let me just remind you, re Trayvon Martin, that white Americans routinely have visual perception problems when it comes to encounters between a white person and a person of color.

Now to Chad Holley's beating, verdict for the first of four cops charged with oppression (Yeah, that made no sense to me either.) was announced yesterday: not guilty. Make no mistake about it folks, prosecutors don't want everybody serving on the jury. You have got to honor your jury summons and serve on the jury. It's not just your legal "duty," it's your moral obligation.

And to my previous question, the answer appears to be no.

Go Fighting Sioux!!

Since I'm referring to the actual Sioux nation and not UND, I hope everyone'll see my title as the clever turn of phrase and . . . er, um . . . the clever turn of phrase that it is. Cause I'm really excited and I hope the US enacts the following suggestion:

Mt. Rushmore Site Should Be Returned To Indigenous Native American Tribes, U.N. Official Says

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.

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 Associated Press:

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."

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.

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.

"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."

Anaya will outline a full set of recommendations regarding Native American relations in a report set to be released later this year.

Do We Have Any Rights Whites Are Bound to Respect?: State of Georgia vs John McNeil

Even 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 NRA clamoring to protect John McNeil's "2nd amendment" rights!

When “Stand Your Ground” Fails

by Rania Khalek

John McNeil killed a white man who assaulted him on his property. But, unlike George Zimmerman, he's serving life.

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, blog about it on Open Salon.

DoJ Needed in Chicago, Too

Update: He's been sentenced to 40 years.  You can sign a change.org petition here.

Me? I'm ready for DEFCOM 1 on this one. Where's the red button? I done had it with this ish!

Howard Morgan, Black Off-Duty Cop Shot 28 Times By White Chicago Officers, Faces Sentencing

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 shot 28 times by white officers -- and lived to tell his side of the story.

Morgan was off-duty as a detective for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad when he was pulled over for driving the wrong way on a one-way street on Feb 21, 2005, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. While both police and Morgan agree on that much, what happened next is a mystery.