Well-meaning reformers and elites often failed at their stated aims of justice and equality for African Americans because they refused to confront the racist ideologies that informed and justified enslavement. Moving toward an abstract ideal of “freedom” from slavery, prison, mass incarceration without tackling head-on longstanding stereotypes and assumptions about racial difference—chiefly, the criminalization of blackness—will only ever lead to partial inclusions. Understanding of the insidious and profoundly historic role of language—and silence—in justifying the expansion of punishment and the criminalization of an entire class of people is vital if we are ever going to confront this injustice and truly embrace the democratic promise of freedom and justice for all.
Category Archives: racism
Black Votes Don’t Matter | Dame Magazine
These in-your-face racist moves are meant to keep power in hands of the few. The DMV closures are taken right from the pages from the Jim Crow–era White segregationists, who closed schools, pools, and other services to prevent integration. These latest proposed closures are indicative of a wholesale divestment in services for those the GOP consider to be working against their agenda.These racists are not subtle—they are not even trying to be covert. Their arrogance makes them believe that they are above the law and entitled to do whatever their rotten hearts desire.
The GOP has maintained that voter ID laws are necessary to prevent fraud. You know, to keep dead people and so-called “illegal aliens” from voting, to keep people from voting in more than one place, or voting where they don’t live, or voting multiple times in the same election, or providing false information to election officials. Never mind that these fears tend to be over-exaggerated. In 2014, Justin Levitt, a professor with Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, produced a comprehensive study on voter fraud and only found 31 credible instances of voter fraud out of 1 billion ballots cast.Alabama Governor Robert Bentley has denied the racial implications of the DMV closures. But history has shown us how ubiquitous these practices are, from poll taxes to literacy tests. If it walks like a racist, talks like a racist, and disenfranchises like a racist, well then race matters.
Singer Julio Iglesias boycotts Donald Trump venues over Mexican comments | News | DW.COM | 08.10.2015
Rupert Murdoch says sorry for ‘real black President’ tweet – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
“Ben and Candy Carson terrific. What about a real black President who can properly address the racial divide? And much else,” Mr Murdoch tweeted.The message was retweeted 1,400 times and mentioned 1,200 times amid an outpouring of anger on the internet.Mr Murdoch later took to Twitter again saying: “Apologies! No offence meant. Personally find both men charming.”
The Guardian view on Britain’s slavery inheritance: reflect and atone (Editorial)
Oregon Sheriff Shared Sandy Hook Conspiracy Theory on Facebook – The New York Times
(Was the shooting in Oregon part of a conspiracy by the county sheriff to…?)
The sheriff also warned the vice president that “any federal regulation enacted by Congress or by executive order of the president offending the constitutional rights of my citizens shall not be enforced by me or by my deputies, nor will I permit the enforcement of any unconstitutional regulations or orders by federal officers within the borders of Douglas Country Oregon.”Three days before that letter was released, Mr. Hanlin shared a link on his personal Facebook page to a YouTube video, which suggested that the shootings at Sandy Hook — and the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 — might have been staged by the federal government to provide a pretext for “disarming the public” through gun control legislation. In a comment imploring his Facebook friends to watch that video, whose producer claims that the parents of children “allegedly shot” at Sandy Hook were actors, the sheriff wrote, “This makes me wonder who we can trust anymore.”
Source: Oregon Sheriff Shared Sandy Hook Conspiracy Theory on Facebook – The New York Times
Trump says he would send back Syrian refugees if elected
US Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has said that if elected he would deport Syrian refugees because they may be “Islamic State.” The United States has taken in some 1,500 Syrian refugees in four years.
Source: Trump says he would send back Syrian refugees if elected
NYC becomes one more city criminalizing Muslim youth and communities
It is incredibly silly. Linda Sarsour, resident badass activist and head of the Arab American Association of New York, pointed to the “criteria” the NYPD uses to identity terror threats. The behaviors that raise suspicion — at least when Muslim youth do them — include: “giving up cigarettes, drinking, gambling and urban hip-hop gangster clothes; wearing traditional Islamic clothing, growing a beard; becoming involved in social activism and community issues.” I don’t know how to describe this as anything but silly.
Source: NYC becomes one more city criminalizing Muslim youth and communities
Moana & the Tribe ‘Whole Worlds Watching’ OFFICIAL Music Video – YouTube
CENSORED NEWS: MAINE: New Film on Battle of Penobscot River Territory
Indian Island, MAINE: On Friday, Sunlight Media Collective released The Penobscot: Ancestral River, Contested Territory, a documentary film that explores the conflict between the state of Maine and the Penobscot Nation over contested river territory. Spanning from the 1700’s to the present-day legal battle of Penobscot Nation v. Mills, the film illustrates the Penobscots’ centuries-long fight to retain their territory and their inherent, treaty-reserved sustenance fishing rights for future generations. Featuring first-person accounts, the film tells the urgent, inspiring story of a struggle for justice and cultural survival in the face of an astonishingly open abuse of state power.
Source: CENSORED NEWS: MAINE: New Film on Battle of Penobscot River Territory




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