Fourteen dead and 17 wounded in San Bernardino, according to the early reports. And that follows just five days after the attack on a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, Colo., in which three people died and nine were wounded. A month earlier, nine people were slain at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore. In August, eight people were shot dead in a house outside Houston. In June, nine people were gunned down at a prayer meeting in a Charleston, S.C., church. In May, nine people were killed in a shootout among police and bikers in Waco, Texas. And on it goes.
Category Archives: racism
Why the Planned Parenthood shooting was always about Black lives

I craved an intersectional framework that acknowledged a linkage between these incidents. When it was reported that Dear had been taken into police custody alive – a harsh juxtaposition to the way McDonald and so many other Black people like him have been killed by police authorities almost on sight – a connection was made: in an anti-Black nation, white privilege and power dictates who lives and who dies. This is a necessary connection that cannot be understated. But it is an observation that reroutes us back to a discourse of Black Lives Matter that does not consider how an attack on Planned Parenthood is always also an attack on Black lives.The history of the problematic divides between race activism and gender activism, particularly the fight for access to reproductive health, is just as rich as the history of said movements themselves. It is no secret that despite the contributions of women and queer folks to strengthen their reach and impact, prominent racial justice movements – including the Abolitionist, Civil Rights, and Black Power movements – maintained male-dominated leadership structures and recognition. And even more disturbing, cases of sexual violence and assault against Black women have also been documented within those movements. From Clarence Thomas to Bill Cosby to R. Kelly, Black leadership and iconicity are continuously sheathed in male privilege and dominance, often at the expense of Black women. Even in the midst of the Chicago protests against the murder of McDonald, several Black women activists were physically and verbally assaulted by Black male elders and activists.Along a similar vein, eugenics supporter Margaret Sanger has left a nasty stain on the legacy of Planned Parenthood. It’s a stain that Planned Parenthood has let settle and concretize by failing to address how this history has residually lingered. Cecile Richards, a liberal white woman, is the current president and public face of Planned Parenthood. But Richards’ individuality aside, the political face of Planned Parenthood has also always been that of white, liberal femaleness. Creating a narrative that protects the reproductive rights of liberal, white women has often resulted in the erasure of the experiences, labor, and activism of the poor people of color that need the affordable services of Planned Parenthood the most. As a former patient, clinic escort, and employee of Planned Parenthood, I know firsthand just how alienating, discouraging, and violent this history can be for Black women attempting to do intersectional reproductive justice work.Intersectionality mattered then and it matters now. When we talk about Black lives mattering we are talking about the right and access of all of us (women, queer, and trans Black folks included) to seek the health treatment and care that determines whether or not we survive. When we talk about reproductive rights, we are talking about providing access and resources to those most economically and politically marginalized. So an act of domestic terrorism against an organization that provides reproductive health care services to economically disadvantaged communities is absolutely an attack on Black lives. If you think there can be a movement for Black lives while not supporting reproductive rights, you’ve missed the mark. If you think you can advocate for reproductive rights without a framework that prioritizes Black women, you have missed the mark.Before we knew that one of the victims was a Black veteran; and before we learned that Dear was given a choice to live – a choice that is too often denied to Black folks – the shooting at the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood was about race. There’s levels to this shit and we have to engage them all.
Source: Why the Planned Parenthood shooting was always about Black lives
NY Post Changes San Bernardino Massacre Cover To Emphasize “Muslim” Over “Murder”: Gothamist {NY Post Encouraging hate and harm to people who are believers in Islam}
Fourteen people were killed and over a dozen more were seriously injured in yesterday’s horrific shooting in San Bernardino, California. The two main suspects, a married couple, were killed during a gun battle with police, and authorities are now piecing together the details of the case. But things like investigations and facts didn’t stop the NY Post from making the decision to change their initial front cover headline—”Murder Mission”—to “Muslim Killers” with all the subtlety of high school teens bullying each other on Snapchat.
Source: NY Post Changes San Bernardino Massacre Cover To Emphasize “Muslim” Over “Murder”: Gothamist
Israel arrests members of ′Jewish terror group′ over killing of Palestinian family | News | DW.COM | 03.12.2015
Israeli police did not say how many far-right extremists were arrested, their names, or any details of the case, due to a restriction by the court.The July 31 attack in Duma, a village outside Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, ignited smoldering Palestinian anger over a frozen peace process and illegal Jewish settlement building in land Palestinians claim for a future state.Tensions have also arisen over the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the third most holy site in the Islamic world and most holy site for Jews, who call it the Temple Mount.The international community, Israeli and Palestinian leaders condemned the attack as Israeli authorities vowed to crack down on Jewish extremism.Daily attacksViolence has spiraled out of control, claiming the lives of 19 Israelis and one Jewish US citizen in near daily stabbing, shooting and car ramming incidents.Israel blames the Palestinian media and leadership of inciting the violence.At least 97 Palestinians, 58 claimed by Israel to be assailants, have been killed since October. The others have been killed mainly in protests and clashes with Israeli security forces.Earlier this week the Israeli rights group B’Tselem accused Israel of carrying out a “shoot-to-kill policy,” – charges denied by Israeli authorities.
Paul Ryan Throws Down G.O.P. Gauntlet for 2016 – The New York Times No interest in serving public or governing just seeking advantage for GOP? Loser/Fail!
“Our No. 1 goal for the next year is to put together a complete alternative to the left’s agenda,” Mr. Ryan said, speaking in the Great Hall at the Library of Congress, a setting designed to highlight the importance he placed on the speech. “Only government that sends power back to the people can make America confident again.”
Source: Paul Ryan Throws Down G.O.P. Gauntlet for 2016 – The New York Times
Robert Reich: Fueling the Fire – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics
Perpetrators of hate crimes often take their cues from what they hear in the media.
But this doesn’t absolve politicians who have been fueling such hatefulness.Perpetrators of hate crimes often take their cues from what they hear in the media. And the recent inclination of some politicians to use inflammatory rhetoric is contributing to a climate of hate and fear.Carly Fiorina continues to allege, for example, that Planned Parenthood is selling body parts of fetuses.Although the claim has been proven baseless, it’s been repeated not only by Fiorina but also by other candidates. Mike Huckabee calls it “sickening” that “we give these butchers money to harvest human organs.”Even in the wake of Friday’s Colorado shootings, Donald Trump referred to videos “with some of these people from Planned Parenthood talking about it like you’re selling parts to a car.”Some candidates are also fomenting animus toward Muslims.Huckabee says he’d “like for Barack Obama to resign if he’s not going to protect America and instead protect the image of Islam.”And Trump not only fails to condemn violence he provokes but finds excuses for it.Ben Carson says allowing Syrian refugees into the United States is analogous to exposing a neighborhood to a “rabid dog.” Last September Carson said he “would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation.”Since the attacks that killed 130 people in Paris earlier this month, Trump has advocated registering all Muslims in the United States and putting American mosques under surveillance.
Source: Robert Reich: Fueling the Fire – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics
Video: Israeli soldier forces knife on Palestinian girl | The Electronic Intifada
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6HJuiH181E
The 3-minute video appears to have been filmed from a vehicle stopped at the checkpoint. At the beginning, a man in civilian clothes can be seen speaking to the girl next to a white truck. Israeli soldiers are standing nearby and giving orders to others.The girl is not restrained by the soldiers and walks toward the cab of the white truck. At 1:30, one of the soldiers throws what appears to be a knife onto the ground.The girl, with her arms raised near her chest, trembles. The soldier then appears to order her to bend down and pick up the knife.She kneels down and picks it up, and then appears to talk to the soldier as she holds it. As she kneels, a second soldier aims his weapon at her.A third soldier then approaches and leads her away with her hands behind her back.As with other similar incidents, the video has fueled widespread suspicions that many of the alleged stabbing attempts in which Palestinians were killed involved the planting of evidence.
Source: Video: Israeli soldier forces knife on Palestinian girl | The Electronic Intifada
Doc Explores Mitrice Richardson’s Suspicious Death After Malibu Arrest: LAist
Lost Compassion, directed by Charles Croft and Chip Croft, explores the case of Richardson, a young woman who disappeared after she was released from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Malibu/Lost Hills Station at 27050 Agoura Rd. in Agoura, and whose body was found a year later in a remote area known as Dark Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains.The case remains open, according to the L.A. Daily News. L.A. County Sheriff’s Cmdr. Rod Kusch said in an email to the outlet that former leads have been exhausted, but that “any new leads will be pursued when they are received by the Sheriff’s Department. It is a death investigation at this time, as the coroner’s office has not ruled it a homicide.” Richardson’s mother, Latice Sutton, believes her daughter was murdered. The tagline for the film is, “Someone knows.”Richardson was 24 years old when she disappeared in September of 2009, according to reporter Mike Kessler, who dove deep into the case for Los Angeles Magazine in 2011. She was sent to jail for allegedly refusing to pay her bill at a restaurant in Malibu. Though she was behaving strangely, she was not held by police for a psychological evaluation. Instead, she was released alone that same night, after midnight, into the remote area surrounding the Lost Hills station. She did not have any money, her car had been impounded, and she did not have her phone. After she was released, she simply disappeared.
Source: Doc Explores Mitrice Richardson’s Suspicious Death After Malibu Arrest: LAist
Donald Trump Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop Repeating Debunked NJ 9/11 Claim: “I’m Not Going To Take It Back”: Gothamist

Donald Trump’s hateful, dangerous rhetoric is finally catching up with him: according to Reuters, Trump’s support among Republicans has dropped 12 points in the last week, his biggest decline since July. They credit that drop to Trump’s much-debunked NJ 9/11 cheering story and his disgusting impression of a NY Times reporter with a disability. But if you think being called out by every credible news source in the country is enough to make Trump change his tune, you don’t know Trump. AP Trump repeated his story that “thousands and thousands of people [in NJ] were cheering as that building was coming down” on 9/11 on Meet The Press this morning. “I saw it on television,” Trump said. “And so did many other people and many people saw it in person. I have hundreds of phone calls to the Trump organization saying we saw it. It was dancing in the streets. Why would I take it back, I’m not going to take it back.” Host Chuck Todd pushed back hard though, rightfully calling him out on his bullshitting: “There were three of four different reports that month in New Jersey that said it was a myth. That it was a false rumor. FBI. You name it,” Todd said. Check out the rest of the exchange, via Raw Story. “Just because somebody repeats something doesn’t make it true,” Todd argued. “I don’t mean I had two calls, Chuck,” Trump interrupted. “People were saying they lived in Jersey.” “People were saying!” Todd shot back. “If I said, ‘Well, people have said Mr. Trump’s not worth $10 billion, and people were saying,’ you would say that’s crazy. You wouldn’t make a business deal based on retweets and based on hearsay.” “You’re running for president of the United States,” he continued. “Your words matter. Truthfulness matters. Fact-based stuff matters.” “Take it easy, Chuck, just play cool,” Trump quipped. “This is people in this country that love our country that saw this by the hundreds they’re calling and they’re tweeting.” “I have a very good memory. I saw it somewhere on television many years ago and I never forgot it. And it was on television too.” Trump continued to push the point, arguing that if it happened somewhere…then it could have happened here? Uh, why not? Seriously, I think that’s his argument: “You have a huge Muslim population, between Patterson and different places and Jersey City, an unbelievable large population. If they’re going to be doing it at soccer games, if they’re going to be doing it all around the world, it was being done,” Trump said. “When the Trade Center came down, it was done all around the world. And you know that because that has been reported very strongly. Why wouldn’t it have taken place?” MTV dug up what is believed to be the television footage Trump was referring to, taken from a documentary called Fight For Your Rights: Aftermath of Terror, which first aired on MTV on Nov. 17, 2001. It all seems to rest on the eyewitness account of then-high school senior Emily Acevedo, who went on to say, “Everyone that was out there, they were only 13 or 14 at most. They were kids. They didn’t know what they were doing.” There’s a pretty huge difference between a handful of dumb kids and “thousands and thousands” of Muslims. Trump knows what he’s saying, he knows why he’s saying it, and he will never apologize. He’s not even a real sociopath, just a professional used car salesman with a bad tan and a preternatural ability to say anything that will keep him in the spotlight. Thankfully, those latest poll numbers show that even his so-called base of supporters are starting to tire of someone who openly mocks people with disabilities and then blatantly, obviously, unmistakably lies about it.
Behind migrant protests, children live in limbo at Macedonia′s border | Europe | DW.COM | 27.11.2015


“The things some of these kids draw, they’re awful,” said Iro Kofokotsios, 18. “People with guns, war, torture.” Kofkotsios had come with a group of volunteers from the YMCA to the Greek border with Macedonia “We couldn’t bring them shelter or food,” she continued, “but we thought maybe we could bring them smiles.”Here at the refugee camp near the town of Idomeni, Greece, smiles are hard to come by. After the Macedonian government announced last week that it would only allow migrants from Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq to cross its border, thousands here have been left behind. It’s led to daily protests, with the border at times being closed altogether. On Monday, a group of Iranian men sewed their lips together in desperation.But behind the crowds of angry, screaming men confronting the Greek riot police, in the camp set up by aid agencies, there are an estimated 70 children who are also stranded in this dusty no man’s land. Most are Iranian or Pakistani, with some from Morocco, Somalia, Sudan, Bangladesh and other countries. Many have come with their parents, others have come alone. But with the border now closed to these nationalities, all of them are stuck in refugee limbo.
Source: Behind migrant protests, children live in limbo at Macedonia′s border | Europe | DW.COM | 27.11.2015
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