Lavette’s Choice – Lavette Mayes is a single mother. She was arrested after a fight with her mother-in-law. To stay out of jail before her court date, she was asked to pay a cash bail she could not afford. For lack of money, she was locked up for 14 months while waiting for her court […]
Summer Stephan’s Racist and Anti-Semitic Crusade for the Office of San Diego County District Attorney
Any discussion about the criminal justice system needs to start and end with an acknowledgment of the role racism plays in the United States. The electoral contest for County District attorney in San Diego is no exception.
Now that billionaire George Soros is being accused of fomenting anarchy by supporting an anti-establishment candidate, this discussion needs to be expanded to include the stereotype of the rich Jew as an evil “other.” She doesn’t even have to use the word “Jew”, wink, wink.
I don’t believe appointed incumbent DA Summer Stephan and her backers in the law enforcement establishment think of themselves as racists or antisemites. I’m sure they’ll tell you some of their best friends are people of color. I’m sure our interim DA means well when she speaks of dealing with implicit bias. I’m sure she’s horrified by reading accounts of the Holocaust. [Read more…]
Why Build a Lynching Memorial? | Video Worth Watching
Today, April 26th, a new museum and memorial is opening in Montgomery, Alabama, on a site where enslaved people were once warehoused. It is a project of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) and the museum and memorial are dedicated to the memory of more than 4400 victims of racial lynchings between 1877 and 1950.
But why build a lynching memorial? EJI believes that publicly confronting the truth about our history is the first step towards recovery and reconciliation. A history of racial injustice must be acknowledged, and mass atrocities and abuse must be recognized and remembered, before a society can recover from mass violence. [Read more…]
Elizabeth Acevedo – ‘Beloved or If You Are Murdered Tomorrow’ – All Def Poetry | Video Worth Watching
From the Huffington Post’s Latino Voices:
Acevedo told The Huffington Post that the poem is inspired by the thoughts that run through her head when she hears that yet another black man has been shot and killed by police. “I was cooking black beans the day when the Jordan Davis case went to trial, and I was distracted, thoughtless in some ways, and the pot boiled over and the beans burned,” Acevedo said. “Something about that image really struck home. How the stove smudged, how the beans look when they’re split open, how heavy my heart was over this kid in Florida. But the history of Moros y Cristianos (Moors and Christians) also played into the moment. This is a Caribbean dish of simple ingredients, rice and beans elevating the other. It’s also A dish named after the Moor conquest of Spain. The racial dynamics in all of that: the Caribbean, Spain and North Africa, Jordan Davis, coalesced through that metaphor. It was how I was able to enter the poem by exploring that moment and my stake in it as an Afro-Latina and partner of a black man.”
Langston Hughes -‘I, Too, Sing America’ | Video Worth Watching
Langston Hughes reading his poem “I, too, sing America”. As testament to its enduring impact consider that according to the Poetry Archive, it was written in 1924 and recorded by Folkways in 1955, and that Wikipedia notes: “On September 22, 2016, his poem “I, Too” was printed on a full page of the New York Times in response to the riots of the previous day in Charlotte, North Carolina.” [Read more…]
“Things That Make White People Uncomfortable”: Michael Bennett’s Essential New Book
By Jessie Hagopian / Common Dreams
Today, my good friend Michael Bennett, former Seattle Seahawk, and current Philadelphia Eagle, releases his new book, “Things That Make White People Uncomfortable”—the memoir/manifesto that he wrote with my other dear friend Dave Zirin.
I am going to assume my position as a teacher here and officially assign you homework: read this book! Take notes. Report back on it to your community. Then take action. It is indispensable for anyone who wants to understand why so many players today are refusing to just shut up and play and are creating the new national pastime of protest and play. But this book is much more than just an expository essay about the new Black athlete.
This is one of those rare books you read that will change the way you understand yourself and your place in the world. Only a few books have had that kind of impact on me. Books like “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” and “Angela Davis: An Autobiography.” Uncomfortable has me feeling like a kid again, remembering how those amazing autobiographies turned me upside down and inside out. [Read more…]
Rev. Al Sharpton On MLK: He Had A Vision Beyond His Time | Video Worth Watching
Reverend Al Sharpton joins Hardball to reflect on the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s death and his mountaintop speech. [Read more…]
‘They Feed They Lion’ by Philip Levine | National Poetry Month
The Poet as Witness
During the 1950’s Philip Levine was working in Detroit auto plants and writing poetry. In an interview at that time in Detroit Magazine he described how he found his compelling subject material. “I saw that the people that I was working with…were voiceless in a way. In terms of the literature of the United States they weren’t being heard. Nobody was speaking for them. And as young people will, you know, I took this foolish vow that I would speak for them and that’s what my life would be. …I just hope that I have the strength to carry it all the way through.”
They Feed They Lion was written in 1968, when Levine returned to Detroit following the race riots of 1967. It is one of his finest poems, reflecting the degree to which he found “the strength to carry it all the way through.” The poem is merciless in its judgements and propelled by the rhythmic insistence of the language itself. [Read more…]
2020 Census Citizenship Question Amounts to a ‘Sabotage’ of Democracy
By Jake Johnson / Common Dreams
In a move denounced by immigrant rights advocates and legal experts as an effort to “undercount communities of color” that could have an enormous impact on the drawing of congressional districts, the Trump administration announced late Monday that the 2020 Census will ask respondents whether or not they are U.S. citizens.
“This is an attempt to racially rig the census,” argued Common Cause president Karen Hobert Flynn in a statement after the move was made public in a late-night press release by the Commerce Department. “An accurate census is essential in the redrawing of our congressional and legislative districts and budgeting decisions that impact our schools, hospitals, roads, and veterans.”
Shortly after the decision to include a citizenship question on the 2020 Census was announced, California Attorney General Xavier Beccera joined civil rights advocates in condemning the move and filed suit against the Trump administration, arguing that inclusion of the question is “not just a bad idea—it is illegal.” [Read more…]
Linda Brown Recalls Her Role in the Historic ‘Brown v. Board of Education’ Case | Video Worth Watching
Linda Brown, the schoolgirl at the heart of the Brown v. Board of Education lawsuit, died on Sunday, at the age of seventy-six. In this video recorded in 2004, she relates her memories of the situation that led her father to file the court case that ultimately led to the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring school segregation unconstitutional. [Read more…]
Protests in Brazil After Politician Marielle Franco Shot Dead | Video Worth Watching
Tens of thousands of Brazilians have protested across the country to mourn the apparent assassination of a well-known police critic.
Marielle Franco, a councilwoman from Rio de Janeiro, was shot along with her driver on Wednesday night.
The 38-year city councillor had become a voice for gay and black rights, as well as fighting against police violence in poor areas of the city. [Read more…]
Civil Rights Leader Who Desegregated U. of Georgia Reflects on Student-Led Movements of Today | Video Worth Watching
Civil rights leader Charlayne Hunter-Gault, interviewed by Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman, reflects on her experiences desegregating the University of Georgia and on the contemporary student-led movements for gun reform. [Read more…]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- …
- 28
- Next Page »