Category Archives: racism

What Asian Americans Are Bringing to Campus Movements for Racial Justice | Race Files

Discussing the future of their work, Tran said: “Hopefully more people within the Asian American community understand that Asian American activism does exist, that Asian American students can make differences within campuses.”Wong stressed the importance of highlighting existing student efforts, encouraging students at other campuses to reach out to strategize and build together: “There is a community in that way because a lot of students think that there aren’t students doing this and they have to do it on their own.”Ultimately, Asian American student movements depend on a radical shift in perspective, one in which students see themselves not as visitors but as stakeholders and change agents within their institutions.“The more that people feel like they belong in a space, the more they feel like they should change what’s going on if they feel like it’s wrong,” said BAATF and BAASA leader Theresa Yeo. “That feeling of empowerment: if there’s a problem you can do something about it. You don’t just have to sit with it. That’s something I’ve learned in this past semester. I definitely think that’s something that comes with a sense of belonging, a sense of saying ‘This is my space. This is my house. I can do something here.’”

Source: What Asian Americans Are Bringing to Campus Movements for Racial Justice | Race Files

Donald Trump Is the Most Dangerous Man in the World – SPIEGEL ONLINE

Trump Wants A Ruthless America”Believe me, I’ll change things. And again, we’re going to be so respected. I don’t want to use the word ‘feared,'” he told the audience. But that is precisely what Trump wants: to be feared. His bid for the White House, long ridiculed, is a fight for a ruthless, brutal America. Behind his campaign slogan “Make America great again!” is the vision of a country that no longer cares about international treaties, ethnic minorities or established standards of decency.Trump wants to attack head-first again. The 69-year-old embodies a new harshness and brutality, and both a physical and emotional crudeness. Trump has launched an uprising of the indecent, one that is now much bigger than he himself, a popular movement of white, conservative America that after eight years under Democratic President Barack Obama, yearns for a leader who will usher in the counter-revolution.

Source: Donald Trump Is the Most Dangerous Man in the World – SPIEGEL ONLINE

Masked gang threatens attacks against asylum seekers in Stockholm – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Dozens of masked, black-clad men believed to belong to neo-Nazi gangs rampaged through the streets of Stockholm on Friday night handing out leaflets threatening to attack migrant street youths “to make a statement”, with police saying two arrests have been made.The incident highlights the growing tensions over immigration in Sweden, a country of 10 million which received 163,000 asylum seekers last year, and comes days after a 22-year-old female worker was stabbed to death in a centre for unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors in south-western Sweden.As many as 100 people with their faces covered descended on the Sergels Torg pedestrian square, a popular meeting point for young people, including migrant youths.Police had beefed up their presence in the city centre, deploying anti-riot and helicopter units after learning that extremists were planning “aggression on unaccompanied migrant minors”.By midday police had not received any complaints of assault but one 46-year-old man was arrested after striking a plainclothes officer, police spokesman Towe Hagg said.The leaflets handed out on Friday night, which were confirmed by police as being the same as those posted on Swedish social media, said:”When Swedish streets are no longer safe for ordinary Swedes it is our DUTY to fix the problem … Today, therefore, 200 Swedish men gathered to make a statement against the North African ‘street children’ who are ranging around the capital’s central station.”The police have amply shown that it lacks the means to rein them in and we now see no alternative than for us to mete out the punishment they deserve.”Swedish Interior Minister Anders Ygeman condemned the “racist groups which threaten and spread hate in the public space”, adding: “One must respond strongly.”

Source: Masked gang threatens attacks against asylum seekers in Stockholm – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

“Black Americans for a Better Future” Super PAC 100% Funded by Rich White Guys

Mercer, co-CEO of Renaissance Technologies on Long Island, is best-known politically for donating $11,000,000 to Keep the Promise I, a Super PAC backing Ted Cruz’s presidential run.Beyond Mercer’s support of Black Americans for a Better Future and Ted Cruz, Mercer has a long and peculiar history of donations to political and philanthropic causes.The Mercer Family Foundation has given over $1.4 million to the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, which is stockpiling huge amounts of human urine to “revolutionize the evaluation of personal chemistry.” In 2010 Mercer spent $600,000 in an effort to elect OISM’s co-founder Arthur Robinson to Congress. (OISM is eager to collect as much urine as possible, so if you would like to donate a sample of your own, the details are available here.)BABF appears to exist solely as a vehicle for Washington, D.C., consultant Raynard Jackson, who is African-American. Jackson is quoted on his firm’s website stating that “You have a fundamental right to pursue business interests with the least amount of interference from the government.” Jackson has elsewhere accused Barack Obama of “relentless pandering to homosexuals.”

Source: “Black Americans for a Better Future” Super PAC 100% Funded by Rich White Guys

Denmark faces backlash over ‘despicable’ ‘jewellery law’ – The Local

Legislation agreed in Denmark to seize the valuables of refugees in the hope of limiting the flow of migrants is “despicable”, US-based rights watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday. “I think it’s despicable that Denmark and also in a sense Switzerland are moving to seize the last remaining assets of people, who by virtue of their movement and vulnerability tend to be impoverished and have very little on them,” the executive director of HRW, Kenneth Roth, told a news conference in Istanbul, referring to a Swiss law that since the 1990s has required asylum seekers to contribute to the costs of hosting them in the wealthy Alpine country. “Does a rich country like Denmark really need to strip the very assets of these desperate asylum seekers before providing them basic services?” asked Roth, who was presenting HRW’s annual report in Istanbul.

Source: Denmark faces backlash over ‘despicable’ ‘jewellery law’ – The Local

German Muslim soldier criticizes racism following Cologne attacks | News | DW.COM | 26.01.2016

She even had to contend with people who accused her of not understanding the plight of the women who had been harassed. “Sexual harassment – against women, men or children- is bad,” Reinke said. “I don’t want anyone to experience this.”Reinke’s Facebook post begins with her saying she is a “German and a Muslim.” She says she was “ashamed” and felt “sick” when she heard that there were several Moroccans among the men who harassed women in Cologne on December 31.”My parents worked very hard to establish themselves here …” Reinke told DW. “I cringe when I hear these people who sexually assaulted women were from Morocco.”Reinke said she also feels bad when she hears about a refugee home being attacked. “For me it is attempted murder … because then people say, ‘All Germans are Nazis.’ And that makes me cringe too.”Reinke’s message unleashed an outpouring of reactions. She said her supervisors at the Bundeswehr and her organization Deutscher Soldat, which volunteers for refugee causes, were very cooperative. “I did not realize that it had been shared so much,” she said, adding that she was on holiday and looking for wedding dresses with her best friend who was getting married.

Source: German Muslim soldier criticizes racism following Cologne attacks | News | DW.COM | 26.01.2016

Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu calls for execution of Palestinians – PNN

Israeli newspaper Jerusalem Post reported him saying: “Should we leave them alive in order to then free them in another gesture to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas? The fact that they still have a desire to commit terrorist attacks shows that we are not operating strongly enough,” he said.Explaining more about his fatwa, Eliyahu wrote on his facebook page that “The Israel Police officers who do keep terrorist Palestinians alive should be prosecuted under the law.”He went on: “We must not allow a Palestinian to survive after he was arrested. If you leave him alive, there is a fear that he will be released and kill other people.” He added: “We must eradicate this evil from within our midst.”

Source: Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu calls for execution of Palestinians – PNN

Eritrean man was lynched by Israelis in uniform, new video shows | The Electronic Intifada

On 18 October, 29-year-old Eritrean refugee Haftom Zarhum was severely beaten and shot to death by a vengeful mob of Israeli soldiers, prison officers and police in and out of uniform, security camera footage recently obtained by the Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz has revealed.The mob mistook Zarhum, unarmed and injured, for the gunman who had opened fire moments earlier at the central bus station in Bir al-Saba (Beer Sheva), a city in the south of present-day Israel.

Source: Eritrean man was lynched by Israelis in uniform, new video shows | The Electronic Intifada

Minnesota cop tells drivers to run over ‘idiot’ Black Lives Matter protesters | 3CHICSPOLITICO

A St. Paul police sergeant has been placed on leave after authorities were alerted that he was advising motorists to feel free to hit Black Lives Matter “idiots” with their cars before driving a block or two away and reporting it as an accident.According to the Pioneer Press, Sgt. Jeffrey M. Rothecker is being investigated for a Facebook comment he made about an article on a Black Lives Matter protest that involved stopping traffic on Monday..

Source: Minnesota cop tells drivers to run over ‘idiot’ Black Lives Matter protesters | 3CHICSPOLITICO

5 facts about race in America | Pew Research Center

Even before a series of police shootings of blacks last year, most Americans gave police departments around the country relatively low marks in treating races equally. In a survey conducted shortly after the August 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., about one-third or less of Americans thought police departments nationwide did a good or excellent job of holding officers accountable for misconduct, using the appropriate amount of force and treating racial and ethnic groups equally.

Source: 5 facts about race in America | Pew Research Center