Raising Cain...

A Political Obituary of Etta James - COLORLINES

 

via colorlines.com

I've got At Last playing on my iTunes as I write this...interesting article by Kenyon Farrow at Colorlines:

The woman born Jamesetta Hawkins on January 25, 1938, was far more than just a torch song singer, and was not at all the tragic mulatto with a white daddy complex that “Cadillac Records” constructed. In many ways, James’s personal and artistic journey, as opposed to the film’s caricature, has a lot to teach us about the shifting politics of race, class and feminist politics over the course of the last half century.

Read the rest of the article...

 

 

 

Celebrating the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr

I've had to spend much of the day studying self-organizing systems, but I managed to punctuate all of this with breaks to see what folks are writing about MlK, and, tonight, I'll join a couple of telecouncils dedicated to celebrating King's life and work.

Here are some links to articles, including two of Dr. King's speeches:

Letter from a Birmingham Jail

Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence

SPECIAL: Dr. Martin Luther King in His Own Words (via Truthout: Democracy Now! videos and transcripts, 1/16/12)

How a Racist Criminal Justice System Rolled Back the Gains of the Civil Rights Era (Amy Goodman, Michelle Alexander, Randall Robinson and Juan Gonzalez, 1/16/12)

'Right to Work' and the Jim Crow Legacy That Affronts King's Memory (John Nichols, 1/16/12)

 

FREE TELECOUNCILS:

Occupy the Dream: MLK and the Power of Love with Occupy Love's Velcrow Ripper (Mali Rowan Presents, 1/16/12 at 7pm eastern)

Reading of Martin Luther King, Jr's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" (hosted by Humanity's Team)

Monday, January 16, 2012 at 6pm Pacific, 7pm Mountain, 8pm Central, 9pm Eastern

Dial in information: (303) 390-0043 Guest pin code: 609332# OR
Webcast information: http://InstantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=25747941  password: ihaveadream

 

ACLU: Federal Court Rules That Discrimination Against Muslims Violates the First Amendment

Awesome decision yesterday by a federal appeals court on some of the Islamophobic nonsense making its way into "no sharia" legislation around the country. This case was in Oklahoma. The opinion is worth reading (pdf, 111kb) says me.

Here's an excerpt from ACLU's article. The full article has links to previous articles and other info as well:

Condemning an entire faith and singling out its followers for disfavored and unequal treatment by the government violates the Constitution, it turns out. That principle might seem obvious to anyone who has read the Constitution, but the State of Oklahoma and its voters did not get the message, prompting a federal appeals court today to affirm a decision blocking the implementation of an anti-Islam constitutional amendment.

Read more at www.aclu.org

 

Military Admits Chen Was Target of Race-Based Hazing on Daily Basis | Truthout

U.S. Army investigators have released explosive new details about the death of Private Danny Chen, who allegedly took his own life just weeks after he was deployed to Afghanistan last October. The family of the 19-year-old Chinese-American soldier says the Army told them Chen had been abused by comrades on an almost daily basis, including racist hazing, with soldiers throwing rocks at him, calling him ethnic slurs and forcing him to do push-ups or hang upside down with his mouth full of water. "This is not a situation where you can expect Danny to make complaints to his higher-ups, when they’re the ones that are causing this hazing," says Liz OuYang of the civil rights group OCA-New York. "It was incumbent upon the officer, the highest leader in this platoon, to take action... Had he reported it to higher-ups, there is a great possibility that Danny may still be alive today." Chen’s family and supporters have called for eight soldiers charged in his death to be tried in the United States instead of overseas.

via www.truth-out.org

"Right to Bully Bill" in Tennessee links...

Thanks to an email from the Tennessee Equality Project, I finally found some links to language of the "right to bully" bill now being considered in the Tennessee legislature:

Bill information on HB 1153 (a page at the TN General Assembly website)

HB 1153 (pdf)

SB0760 (TN senate version of HB 1153)

 

I have been relying on TNEP for news on LGBTQ issues in Tennessee...and there are many. I find this state to be pretty homophobic (as well as Islamophobic and xenophobic), and racial injustice is pervasive...lots of reasons to "Raise Cain" in Tennessee.

The Tennessee Equality Project works to promote equality throughout Tennessee and to serve as advocates of change by:

• fighting any legislation in the State of Tennessee that would endanger the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender citizens
  
  
• actively pursuing measures that would provide protection for the GLBT community at both the state and local levels
  
  
• educating citizens on the importance of lobbying their elected officials
  
  
• providing the resources and training to assist through statewide initiatives

 

TNEP is organizing action against the "Right to Bully" Bill as well as last year's "Don't Say Gay" Bill. Here is the "take action" section from the TNEP email today, in case you are interested:

Take action today to promote safety in Tennessee Schools:

1. Send a message opposing the License to Bully bill to the House and Senate Education Committees.
2. Send another message to lawmakers to vote against the Don't Say Gay bill in the House Subcommittee on Education.
3. Become a sustaining donor to the Tennessee Equality Project by participating in the 12+12+12 campaign. Donate at least $12 for 12 months in 2012 to promote safe schools and promote equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their families in Tennessee.

 

Gretchen Whitmer: Proposed "Right to Bully" GLBT Youth Provision Could Make Tennessee a "Laughingstock"

Judging by the number of returns on a Google search for this "right to bully" bill, I'd say Tennessee's laughingstock is already up over this. The new bill would amend existing anti-bullying law to give bullies a "loophole" if they bullied LGBTQ students on religious grounds. If I can ever find the actual text of the amendment, I'll come back and add a link for it.

Here are some other links, including one for taking action via change.org...

Back in November, Michigan Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer (D) made national headlines for delivering an impassioned speech condemning legislation that required schools to adopt anti-bullying policies that exempted students who bullied based on “sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction.” As a result of Whitmer’s very public opposition, the Michigan legislature eventually stripped the so-called “license to bully” provision from the final bill and now the state leader is hoping to duplicate that success in Tennessee, where lawmakers are considering a very similar clause.

via www.alternet.org

 

 

Tennessee Anti-bullying Law: Stop All Bullying (petition at change.org)

Christian activist questions scope of anti-bullying law (Chattanooga Times-Freepress, 1/4/2012)

Proposed bill in Tennessee would essentially legalize anti-LGBTQ bullying (feministing.com, 1/5/12)

Tennessee Anti-bullying Law Could Allow Students to Speak Out Against Gays for Religious Reasons (Huffington Post, 1/4/12)

 

‘Pariah’ Director Dee Rees and Kim Wayans pitch for greater diversity in storytelling

Jorge Rivas at Colorlines has a great video interview of Dee Rees, director of "Pariah" and actress Kim Wayans. The video brings out many aspects of racial injustice in the entertainment industry. I really resonated with both Dees and Wayans when they spoke about their desire for gretaer diversity in stories and storytelling. Here's an excerpt from the short article, and the video on YouTube:

It’s no secret that films that tell stories about people of color have a hard time getting made. Seasoned Oscar-nominated directors like John Singleton, Spike Lee and Gregory Nava have a hard enough time finding investors to back their films, so when Dee Rees decided she wanted to tell a coming of age story about a young, black lesbian, she couldn’t go the traditional route and went as far selling her Brooklyn apartment to raise funds.

“We knew that if we could just get the film done, that regardless of sexuality, race and identity, people would be able to see themselves in different parts of the story,” Rees told Colorlines.com last month, as she awaited the release of her feature directorial debut “Pariah.”

“We’d go to pitch meetings and the moment we said ‘black, lesbian, coming of age,’ they would turn around, validate our parking and hand us a bottle of water.”

via colorlines.com

 

Racial Profiling, Republican Candidates, and Rights Violations: the Immigration Debate at Year's End | | AlterNet

Kari Lyderson's article reviews stories related to immigration that emerged in the final weeks of 2011. Let's hope we make progress toward justice in 2012  for immigrants -- especially the children -- who are suffering because of rampant xenophobia and crappy immigration policy (and enforcement) in the US.

Several of the Republican candidates have surprisingly moderate records and/or positions on immigration, but they are trying to obscure this in order to cater to hardcore anti-immigrant voters or generally come off as extremely conservative. Ironically a hardline anti-immigration message is out of step with the majority of Americans across the political spectrum, according to an analysis of five recent polls by the Center for American Progress.

via www.alternet.org

 

Also see:

Severing a Lifeline: The neglect of citizen children in America's immigration enforcement policy (pdf, 8.5MB)

Shattered Families: The Perilous Intersection of Immigration Enforcement and the Child Welfare System (download page)

Thousands of Kids Lost from Parents in US Deportation System (Colorlines, 11/2/11)