Raising Cain...

Colin Powell’s former chief of staff: ‘My party is full of racists’ — MSNBC

Despite all the lies, hate speech and crazy talk flying around during this 2012 election cycle, I do occasionally hear a courageous soul telling it like it is. I was watching the Ed Show last night when Col. Lawrence Wilkerson commented on John Sununu's suggestion that Colin Powell endorsed President Obama because of his skin color:

“My party, unfortunately, is the bastion of those people, not all of them, but most of them, who are still basing their decision on race,” Wilkerson said. “Let me just be candid: My party is full of racists. And the real reason a considerable portion of my party wants President Obama out of the White House  has nothing to do with the content of his character, nothing to do with his competence as commander-in-chief and president, and everything to do with the color of his skin. And that’s despicable.”

 

via tv.msnbc.com

Michelle Chen: The Formula for ‘Equal Opportunity’ and Why Affirmative Action Isn’t Enough

This great article by Michelle Chen looks deeper into issues behind a pending Supreme Court case, Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, that challenges U.T. Austin's admissions policy to to bring in more students of color by considering race among other factors. As part of her analysis, Chen reviews a new book that will be of interest to racial justice activists:

The backlash against affirmative action—and more broadly against institutional efforts to desegregate schools and workplaces—has been accompanied by straw-man accusations of “reverse racism,” heard in debates about everything from President Obama to high school textbooks. Meanwhile, affirmative action's detractors paper over the persistent inequities across our workplaces and classrooms.

A new book, Documenting Desegregation, sheds light on how racial inequity really works and why it's so pernicious. The book traces the evolution of equal opportunity policies under the Civil Rights Act since its implementation in the mid-1960s. The authors, sociologists Kevin Stainback and Donald Tomaskovic-Devey, tell Working In These Times that effective enforcement of civil rights depends on both strong pro-integration policies and, more importantly, grassroots political movements that can hold institutions accountable.

Read the rest of Chen's article at www.inthesetimes.com

You can also check out an informative Documenting Desegregation factsheet (pdf, 349KB) from the publisher.

DOJ Sues Mississippi for Its Egregious School-to-Prison Pipeline - COLORLINES

Here's an update to a link I posted on September 17th about an eight-month investigation by the Justice Department seeking to learn whether or not kids like 14 year old Lionel Townsend and others were being illegally shoveled into the system for acting out in school. It appears that the conclusion was: Yes.

Mississippi is breaking the law by violating the due process rights of kids who are getting funneled through its juvenile justice system, the Department of Justice has said. It filed a lawsuit today against the state itself, as well as the city of Meridian, Lauderdale County and judges of the Lauderdale County Youth Court for doing exactly that.

“The department is bringing this lawsuit to ensure that all children are treated fairly and receive the fullest protection of the law,” Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement. “It is in all of our best interests to ensure that children are not incarcerated for alleged minor infractions, and that police and courts meet their obligations to uphold children’s constitutional rights.”

Read more details of this story at colorlines.com

Democracy in ‘Suspense’: Why Arizona’s Native Voters Are in Peril - COLORLINES

I found this article interesting because it discusses several dimensions of life of Native Americans -- in this case, members of the Navajo Nation -- that compound the process of disenfranchisement, for example, their sovereignty:

Race is ubiquitous around election time—especially when it comes to disenfranchisement. But few people understand the unique position that Native Americans share with the federal government. In a recent interview with Indian Country Today, President Obama explained what he called “a turning point in the relationship between our nations,” alluding to the fact that Native American nations, tribes, and bands hold tribal sovereignty. Obama’s interview—the first for a president while in office with a Native news outlet—reflected an understanding of Native people beyond the scope of race, and acknowledged the distinctive government to government requirements between the United States and Native nations.

And it’s this particular relationship with the federal government that sometimes puts Native nations at odds with the 50 states. The Navajo Nation, for example, extends over Arizona, Utah, or New Mexico. But because individual Secretaries of State oversee federal elections, the Navajo, or Diné people, have three different sets of rules for registration, early voting, and voter identification.

Read the whole article at colorlines.com

Poor Kids Getting Prescribed ADHD Meds They Don't Need, Against Their Will | Alternet

This is pathetic, not to mention outrageous. Unfortunately drugging kids has been part of the the war against children (especially children of color) for many years. I saw examples of it daily when I worked in the community mental health system. It's so embedded in the culture of psychiatry and the medical model of mental health any more that it's difficult for individual practitioners to change anything.

Doctors are prescribing prescription pills like Adderall to low-income kids even if they don't "need" drugs to function because it's often the only realistic way to help them do well in school.

"I don't have a whole lot of choice," one doctor who treats poor families outside of Atlanta, Georgia, told the  New York Times . "We've decided as a society that it's too expensive to modify the kid's environment. So we have to modify the kid."

Read the rest of the article at www.alternet.org

Here's the article that appeared in the New York Times: Attention Disorder or Not, Pills to Help in School

An Inside Look at the NYPD's Stop-and-Frisk

This video is an interesting look at the NYPD Stop-and-Frisk activity -- it includes audio from a victim (warning: lots of F-words and violent language from police), and interviews with NYPD police officers whose identity and voices are disguised). See the article about video this by Jamilah King of Colorlines.

 

Islam Has Been Part of American History Since Its Founding | Alternet

This is really interesting stuff...

Muslims are feeling unwelcome in America today, but followers of Muhammed were living here before the arrival of English in Spanish-controlled Florida and French Louisiana, where slaves were imported from the Senegambia region of Africa, home to a large Muslim population. 

Influenced by the tolerance of the Enlightenment, America's founders considered Islam’s place in the new republic despite widespread fear of Barbary pirates and a sense of European rivalry with the Ottoman Empire. As befitting a student of law in a religiously diverse land, Thomas Jefferson purchased a Quran to learn about the Islamic legal code – the same Quran that was used in the swearing in of Muslim Keith Ellison to the U.S. Congress. In 1776, John Adams published "Thoughts on Government," which praised the prophet Muhammad as a "sober inquirer after truth.” Ben Franklin set up a non-sectarian meeting house in Philadelphia, declaring in his autobiography that "even if the Mufti of Constantinople were to send a missionary to preach Mohammedanism to us, he would find a pulpit at his service."

Read the full article at www.alternet.org