Raising Cain...

Solidarity with peoples of the Amazon on Earth Day

The Amazon has over half of the planet’s remaining rainforest habitat and is home to more plants and animals than any other land region on Earth. Indigenous people in the Amazon forest live in a way that preserves and regenerates the resources they use. Unlike people in other cultures, they do not exploit plants and animals in this ecologically diverse region where they live.

In the last 40 years, industrial development, large scale agriculture and encroachment of western ideas and ways of doing things have destroyed 20% of the Amazon. In Peru over 75% of its Amazonian territory is now in the hands of oil companies. 

In this video, a group of Shipibo healers share what the Earth represents to them, and why it's so important that we stand with them in protecting the Amazon.

Learn more at Alianza Arkana.

 

Tell Secretary Napolitano to Abolish Solitary Confinement - Physicians for Human Rights

Thought I'd share this petition link from Physicians for Human Rights asking Janet Napolitano to abolish solitary confinement for people detained in immigration facilities:

Thousands of people awaiting immigration hearings in the US detention system are routinely held in solitary confinement. We know that this cruel and unusual practice causes serious and lasting psychological and physiological harm. The sometimes irreversible consequences — including panic attacks, paranoia, hallucinations, weight loss, and self-harm — are exacerbated for people who have endured torture, which is common among immigration detainees who have fled violence or persecution in their home countries.

Placing anyone in solitary confinement for prolonged periods is an outrage — in some cases even torture — but this practice is especially abhorrent in the immigration setting, where detainees are not being held as punishment for a crime and are usually unable to challenge their detention.

Urge Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to end solitary confinement in all immigration detention facilities. By ending this practice, the United States would send a strong signal to the international community that it does not tolerate torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading practices in its detention policy.

Sign the petition at secure3.convio.net

 

PHR has also published a report on the negative effects of solitary confinement:

Buried Alive: Solitary Confinement in the US Detention System (pdf download page)

 

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Solitary Confinement Report Puts Immigration Advocates In Tough Spot

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Treating immigrants civilly

Marco McMillian's Life And Death A Test For Civil Rights In The Mississippi Delta

Very interesting indepth article by Janell Ross (formerly a reporter at the Tennessean) on the death of Marco McMillian:

Before his mysterious death in late February, Marco McMillian had hoped to lead this community, running for mayor with a reform-minded agenda. McMillian, 33, was black, and the first openly gay person to vie for public office in Mississippi.

The nation’s first black president may have put gay rights squarely in the center of righteous and patriotic American struggles for equality during his second inaugural speech in January. And the Supreme Court is currently considering two of the most important gay rights cases in U.S. history. But the way McMillian’s life is understood, and his death investigated, is also a barometer of sorts on the state of American equality.

“There is some complicated, heartbreaking, truly tragic and important stuff going on in Clarksdale,” said Omowale Akintunde, a University of Nebraska professor and Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker. Akintunde came to town in early March to chronicle what he says is a story that America needs to see.

“What it tells us are some ugly truths about remaining bigotry and bias," he said, "even among those who have themselves been terrorized, exploited, excluded and demeaned.”

Read the full article at www.huffingtonpost.com

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AP drops ‘illegal immigrant’ from Stylebook

Yay! Good news from the Washington Post today for everyone participating in the "Drop the I-word" campaigns:

The Associated Press has dropped the phrase “illegal immigrant” from its stylebook, a victory for immigrant advocates who argue that the term is biased against the people it describes.

“The Stylebook no longer sanctions the term ‘illegal immigrant’ or the use of ‘illegal’ to describe a person,” a blog post from AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll explains. “Instead, it tells users that ‘illegal’ should describe only an action, such as living in or immigrating to a country illegally.”

via www.washingtonpost.com

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A Nazi History Lesson - In These Times

This is one of the better articles I've seen that addresses "alienated whites in Obama's America" in a way that invites exploration...though I'm sure there are many whose world view's are so rigidly fixed that a civil, constructive discussion is not yet possible:

This is not an article about how Bill O’Reilly is just like Adolf Hitler. Nevertheless, there are parallels between the multiethnic Habsburg Empire and the contemporary United States, in particular the racial alienation felt by some in the ethnic majority after previously marginalized minorities gained a measure of political power.

via inthesetimes.com

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Challenge to Voting Rights Act Hinges on a Formula - NYTimes.com

Important Voting Rights Act case being heard at SCOTUS today...

The Supreme Court is hearing arguments on Wednesday in a major voting rights case. Here is some of the history of the law and the issues that are likely to be raised before the court.

via www.nytimes.com

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Close to Slavery: Guestworker Programs in the United States | Southern Poverty Law Center

Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has a new report on how suggestions (see related article links below the clip) to expand the US guestworker program to ensure plenty of cheap labor may take us to a place we really don't want to be:

In the debate over comprehensive immigration reform, various policymakers and business groups have suggested that Congress create a new or expanded guestworker program to ensure a steady supply of foreign workers for industries that rely on an abundance of cheap labor.

Congress should look before it leaps. The current H-2 program, which provides temporary farmworkers and non-farm laborers for a variety of U.S. industries, is rife with labor and human rights violations committed by employers who prey on a highly vulnerable workforce. It harms the interests of U.S. workers, as well, by undercutting wages and working conditions for those who labor at the lowest rungs of the economic ladder. This program should not be expanded or used as a model for immigration reform.

Read more of the article at www.splcenter.org

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US 'Interrogation Center' Proposed at Yale Comes Under Fire | Common Dreams

I find this story kind of creepy -- especially the "using immigrants" part, but generally the growing number of blurred boundarie$ between academia and big business/government. This one brings to mind the protests generated by some members of the American Psychological Association over the role of psychologists in questioning alleged terrorists being held at Guantanamo Bay after 9-11.

Yale University has come under fire this week for a proposed research center that will train U.S. Special Operations forces on "interview techniques"—using immigrants from the local community to practice their interrogation skills.

Aube Rey Lescure / Yale Daily News

 

The center, which has been proposed by psychiatry professor Charles Morgan, would be funded by a $1.8 million grant from the Department of Defense and may be in operation as early as April.

The story gained attention after Yale students Nathalie Batraville and Alex Lew published an op-ed in their school newspaper that outlines concerns about the center—including how it will impact New Haven's immigrant community as well as implications of the university aligning itself with the goals of the U.S. military.

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

Some other good articles and resources:

An End to Psychologists' Role in Interrogation? (Leonard Rubenstein, 8/16/11 at Huffington Post)

Anti-Torture Psychologists Respond to Attack from APA Division Chief (Jeff Kaye writing at FireDogLake, 11/7/12)

Psychologists and interrogations – Key articles (Steven Soldz blog is a great resource on this issue)

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Ethical Issues Swirl Around Yale's Interrogation Center

Yale will train US Special Forces in interrogation techniques using immigrants as guinea pigs | OccuWorld

Yale Helps DoD Train Soldiers By Interrogating Non-Whites

Here’s to You, Mrs. Robeson - In These Times

Okay, here's my culture pick of the week, a review of Barbara Ransby's book about Essie Robeson...

Unlike the world-renowned outspoken singer and actor Paul Robeson (1898-1976), known for his leading roles in The Emperor Jones, Othello and Show Boat, few people have heard of Eslanda ‘Essie’ Cardozo Goode Robeson, the writer, anthropologist and activist who was his wife. In a compelling new biography, Eslanda: The Large and Unconventional Life of Mrs. Paul Robeson, historian Barbara Ransby introduces us to her, and, along the way, explores the sexism that allows “Great Men” to be remembered, while women like Essie, who make their fame and glory possible, are forgotten. The result is a social history that reveals Essie as a prolific journalist, author, public speaker, and advocate for women and people of color—and as a woman whose personal life was rife with contradictions and conundrums.

via inthesetimes.com

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Author Interview: David Cunningham, author of 'Klansville, U.S.A.' : NPR

Here's a clip from the interview transcript. Interesting for me to get more details on what was going on in North Carolina when I lived there for a few years in the late 50's to early sixties. You can also see an article and listen to the story at NPR.

Also see the recommended links below to current stories, one involving the KKK's hateful response to the Memphis (TN) City Council's vote to change the name of 3 city parks.

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Here's a headline you wouldn't want to see in your newspaper: Ku Klux Klan declares war against negro Jew communism. That was a banner headline from the Klan publication The Fiery Cross in 1961. I read that in the new book "Klansville, U.S.A.: The Rise and Fall of the Civil Rights-Era Ku Klux Klan" by my guest David Cunningham.

The book gives a historical overview of the Klan, then focuses on North Carolina, which in spite of its reputation as the region's most progressive state in the '60s was a Klan stronghold then. Cunningham is associate professor and chair of sociology in the Social Justice and Social Policy Program at Brandeis University. He's worked with the Greensboro, North Carolina, Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Mississippi Truth Project.

via www.npr.org

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