This Is Why Black Folks'll Probably Stay on the Democratic "Plantation"

:eyeroll:

Ten conservatives who have praised slavery

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?

And just think, he's only #10. There're 9 more!

It's Their Economy (Not Yours), Stupid!

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)

Slave States vs. Free States, 2012

. . .

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.

. . .

I can't very well copy/paste the entire article. So here's the rest of it here.

"GOP as I Say, Not as I GOP"?

Why won’t the GOP talk about affirmative action?

. . .

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.

...

Finish reading here.

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.

Trayvon, You Ain't Alone, and What Can Be Done about It

Some 200 protesters angered 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.

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 nothing 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.

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, striking Cross in the hand and Boyd in the head. 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?

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, another man was shot and killed by police. 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.

Trayvon Martin, Je Te Plumerai

h/t and best wishes for P6

via Bomani Jones

Warning: this will be long.

Trayvon Martin, And When A Black Man Deserves To Die

My jones 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.

Now, there is a reason we jump to defend people with "pristine" images: wider (ie, whiter) America can support Rosa Parks whereas Claudette Colvin 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.

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, watch.

Cause I'm sure Trayvon Martin didn't have this in mind, talking on the cell to his girlfriend while walking home with some skittles (Taste the rainbow?) for a younger brother and a can of Arizona (ironic, huh?) iced tea. 

And I hella know George Zimmerman was only supposed to watch. That's watch as opposed to surveille.

I Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself!

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Here Comes Another One: Miss Jada Williams!!

h/t New Black Man



You better do it girl!! Come on! - Blaque Swan

Jada Williams, Student, Allegedly Harassed For Award-Winning Essay Comparing School To Modern Slavery

(Strike-through mine.)

Now, the "Man" Is Coming for You, too, Wh*tey!

And to make a point that hard-working white Americans need to hear: 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. Mark my words chumpy: when shit gets to flying, everybody gets hit. 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."

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.

You Down with O4P?

Yeah, you know me!

You down with O4P?

Yeah, you know me!

Who's down with O4P?

Everybody!! [Updated to include a link to a fabulous story over at Racism Review.]

Sorry, I got caught up. But Occupy Wall Street has gained my respect. It's not just Wall St they're occupying anymore. No, they're now occupying prisons and jails, too. And the reason I've decided to give them a second thumb's up? They've come to realize that:

Mass incarceration is the new Jim Crow. 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.

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.

Forced Deportation. Sound Familiar?

An Apology Ceremony That We Need to Publicize

By Bill Fletcher, Jr.
BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board
Feruary 16, 2012

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.

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.

If the "New Rule" Fits . . .

If I find a clip with better sound, I'll post it.

The Political Party What Keeps Crying "Voter Fraud"

UPDATE II:Free Times has confirmed that the six names examined by the State Election Commission came from the list SLED is investigating.

Yeah, that's the 2nd update. Can you imagine the first update and the original story? 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.

And while we're at it, let's scrap this whole "save taxpayers' money" meme, too. After all, the US DoJ used Provision 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act to block the law, and fighting the DoJ on this issue, especially since SC is hiring a private attorney at $520 an hour, is estimated to cost $1million.

And to add insult to injury, SC Gov. Nikki Haley (R) is raising the banner of "10th Amendment rights"! What the what?! Just in case you didn't know, this is why minorities, especially black folks, don't hop on the whole "states' rights" and "local government" bandwagon.

Answer: Number of Years Black Americans Have Actually Been Free

Question: What is 47?

Read more here: Racial Jeopardy and American Politics
                                   by Lisa Sharon Harper