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

Celebrating an Unfinished Revolution on the Fourth of July | | AlterNet

Here's a quote and link from a great piece by Bill Moyers to go along with my previous post:

Yes, Thomas Jefferson possessed "a happy talent for composition," but he employed it for cross purposes. Whatever he was thinking when he wrote "all men are created equal," he also believed black people were inferior to white people. Inferior, he wrote, "to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind." To read his argument today is to enter the pathology of white superiority that attended the birth of our nation.

Read the whole article at www.alternet.org

Joe Brewer: The War on Women and What to Do About It

I really liked Joe's presentation because it connects some dots between sound bytes in the "war on women" and the larger systemic ground of patriarchy in which it is being waged:

 

Cognitive Policy Works (Joe's website)

How the War on Women Became Mainstream (the article that inspired Joe to make this video)

Elon James White: Black Leaders Get Closeup View of Alabama’s New Jim Crow

Interesting article at Colorlines yesterday about the situation in Alabama with HB 56, where "the country's toughest new immigration law sits in a state where there isn’t a problem to begin with."

As the delegation met undocumented residents and activists working with them, one thing that stood out was a broad climate of fear that will be familiar to those who lived through Alabama’s first Jim Crow era. Mary Bauer of the Southern Poverty Center spoke to us at the opening session of the delegation. She retold the story of someone who went to make a cash purchase at Walmart and was asked for identification. That isn’t in the HB-56 law. There isn’t any provision that you can’t make a cash purchase. But when the law of the land is prejudice, it creates vigilante immigration policing. People feel empowered to police anyone they think isn’t documented in any way they feel is reasonable.

via colorlines.com

 

Reconnecting with Cuba: the power of family ties

Interesting article from the New York Times yesterday about how a changing profile of Cuban-Americans in South Florida is causing a shift toward more open relationships between citizens in the United States and in Cuba. According to the article, a large number of younger Cuban-Americans who came to the US in the 1990's on a special visa program now outnumber older Cuban exiles from the 1960s. This has in turn led to a shift in political dynamics:

Although South Florida Congressional members still support a hard line on Cuba, a position that plays well with older voters (the ones likeliest to vote), a majority of Cuban-Americans here have softened their attitudes. Many of them prefer to see more contact with people in Cuba, not less.

“The truth is that the driver in policy is not the relationship between the United States and Cuba, but the relationship between Cubans, and that is far stronger than 50 years of intragovernment hostility,” said Joe Garcia, a former chairman of the Miami Democratic Party. “When you remove just some of the barriers, people do what people do: help their families.”

Read the whole story at www.nytimes.com

 

Justice as fairness: Rawls on Wall Street - NYTimes.com

Much food for thought in this article on American political philosopher John Rawls' theory of "justice as fairness" by Steven Maizie at The Stone blog at New York Times...

This idea is built on the premise that in a just society, citizens should be understood as free and equal participants in a system of social cooperation. Some individuals may be more motivated and harder working, and thus can legitimately expect greater rewards for their efforts. But everyone deserves the same bundle of individual rights and liberties, and everyone is entitled to “fair equality of opportunity,” including access to a decent education and a genuine chance of success in pursuing one’s life plans.

Read more via opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com

See more about John Rawls' work at Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Jeff Biggers: Arizona Senate President Pearce Has Been Recalled

Jeff Biggers -- who I first connected with via his writing on coal mining, mountaintop removal and environmental justice -- has been staying in touch with significant racial justice and immigrant rights issues in Arizona. Biggers has personal connections to Arizona that give his coverage an implicit, if not explicit, viewpoint. Here's an excerpt from his report  yesterday that Russell Pearce, who has been serving as  president of the Arizona State Senate, has been recalled:

In a swift affirmation of Arizona's fast-growing and powerful new political movement, Secretary of State Ken Bennett notified Gov. Jan Brewer that the once seemingly invincible architect of the state's controversial SB 1070 "papers please" immigration law has officially been recalled. Bennett confirmed that the recall petitions delivered by the Citizens for a Better Arizona "exceeds the minimum signatures required by the Arizona Constitution."

"Let's make no mistake about it," said Randy Parraz, co-founder of the Citizens for a Better Arizona. "Russell Pearce has been recalled."

According to Bennett's statement, Pearce has two options: Resign from office within five business days, or become a candidate in the recall election. Either way, Pearce becomes the first state senate president in recent memory to be recalled in the nation.

"No one expected this or picked up on this political earthquake," said Parraz, one of the main organizers behind the extraordinary grassroots campaign, which electrified a bipartisan effort in Pearce's Mesa district. Parraz credited a "dramatic shift" over the past six months due to Pearce's often extremist leadership in state senate.

via www.huffingtonpost.com

Melissa Harris Perry: Is Newt Gingrich Right About Black Voters?

As I see the Republican Party slide more toward what I'd call the lunatic fringe, I've certainly thought more about how those of us who still hold out hope for a racially-just America can reach across colorlines -- and any other lines we have to reach across -- to ditch the craziness and get on with rebuilding a system that works for everybody.

That's why I was interested in this article by Melissa Harris-Perry that recently appeared in The Nation. I'm looking forward to reading the book she references here as well:

Hurricane Katrina was a powerful visual cue that Republicans are not the allies for black interests. In a matter of days it returned black voters solidly to the Democratic fold. Less than two years later Democrats won a majority in Congress. And in the next presidential election black voters formed the coalition base for the election of the first African-American president.

But as memories of Katrina become more distant and the reality of a black president becomes more routine, the possibility of shifting partisan alliances may re-emerge. In his forthcoming book, Not in Our Lifetimes, political scientist Michael Dawson maps the electoral consequences of the racial divide that reopened following Katrina. He shows that although black Americans responded with enthusiastic support for Obama’s candidacy, his election alone will not reverse decades of loosening attachment to Democrats. It is too early to predict whether black voters will go to the polls at the same levels they did in 2008, but Democrats should not take black votes for granted. The detachment of even a small percentage of African-Americans in the next election would be a boon for Republicans. It is not necessary for African-Americans to become Republican voters; only that they fail to become voters at all.

via www.thenation.com

It's way past time for a jail break...

...and by that I mean that we need to break with business as usual in the American prison system and get on with immediate and comprehensive reform.

Check out this video from Cuéntame:

 

From their website:

TOP 3 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PRIVATE PRISONS

1) The victims: Private prisons don't care about who they lock up. At a rate of $200 per immigrant a night at their prisons, this is a money making scheme that destroys families and lives.

2) The players: CCA (Corrections Corporation of America), The Geo Group and Management and Training corporations - combined these private prisons currently profit more than $5 billion a year.

3) The money: These private prisons have spent over $20 million lobbying state legislators to make sure they get state anti-immigration laws approved and ensure access to more immigrant inmates.

TAKE THE PLEDGE:

I stand with Cuéntame's "Immigrants For Sale" campaign and be part of the nationwide network of Prison Watchers that will follow and expose the players, the money and the victims in this corrupt money making racket.

 

READ MORE:

Visit Cuéntame's Facebook page. (You can use the linked image in the sidebar as well.)

Darkness at Noon: Georgia Dumps Peaches for Prisons With Immigration Law Today (May 13, 2011, Jeff Biggers at Huffington Post)

Governor signs Arizona-style immigration bill into law (May 13, 2011, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

The perverse incentives of private prisons (August 2010, The Economist)

Private Prisons Found to Offer Little in Savings (May 19, 2011, NYT)

A Shabby Crusade in Wisconsin (March 25, 2011, NYT Editorial on ALEC's meddling in higher education)

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Call for Peace as Racial Justice Still Rings - COLORLINES

And here's one more from ColorLines. I especially liked this one because it talks about King's "Vietnam speech" -- I heard this speech on NPR last year while I was driving home from Maryland on MLK Day. It really blew my mind how timeless his remarks that day seem to be for life in America today. Here's an excerpt from the article by Michelle Chen:

When Martin Luther King, Jr. “broke the silence” on the war on Vietnam in 1967, he shattered the establishment rhetoric on America’s mission in Southeast Asia. His speech, “Beyond Vietnam: Time to Break the Silence,” delivered at Riverside Church in upper Manhattan, still has revolutionary ring to it as we approach MLK Day more than 40 years later.

via colorlines.com