The real reason the Second Amendment was ratified, and why it says "State" instead of "Country" (the Framers knew the difference - see the 10th Amendment), was to preserve the slave patrol militias in the southern states, which was necessary to get Virginia's vote. Founders Patrick Henry, George Mason, and James Madison were totally clear on that . . . and we all should be too.
Also check out this commentary on what we need to do today on Martin Luther King's birthday by Russell Simmons at Huffington Post. I found it touching and inspiring:
And speaking of court cases (see previous post), two awesome decisions were handed down today, one in the United States, and one in Canada.
In the state of New York, a key part of the NYPD’s controversial “stop and frisk” tactic has been ruled unconstitutional.
Manhattan Federal Court Judge Shira Scheindlin's ruling focused on the NYPD's "Clean Halls" program and ordered police to cease making trespass stops outside of private residential buildings:
"While it may be difficult to say when precisely to draw the line
between constitutional and unconstitutional police encounters such a
line exists, and the NYPD has systematically crossed it when making
trespass stops outside buildings," Scheindlin wrote in a 157-page
ruling.
In Ottawa, Canada, the Federal Court ruled that Metis and non-status
Indians are "Indians" under a section of the Constitution Act, and thus come under federal jurisdiction.The
ruling affects more than 600,000 aboriginal people who are not affiliated with
specific First Nations reserves:
"The recognition of Metis and non-status Indian as
Indians under section 91(24) should accord a further level of respect and
reconciliation by removing the constitutional uncertainty surrounding these
groups," writes Federal Court
Judge Michael Phelan.
While the decision does not go so far as to declare that the
federal government has a fiduciary responsibility to the group, it says such
duties would flow automatically now that their standing has been clarified.
"There is no dispute that the Crown has a fiduciary
relationship with aboriginal people both historically and pursuant to section
35 (of the Constitution)," Phelan writes.
I found this great article from Steven Newcomb the other day. I think it's an important one because he talks about how "patterns of racist and dehumanizing reasoning from the distant past continue to colonize and dominate the present". Anyone who cares about racial justice eventually has to locate and study patterns of oppression in their own being, ancestry and their own nation. The case that Newcomb refers to is interesting reading as well because it links early history of the United States and Canada to Indigenous rights issues in both nations today.
Obviously, there are many issues that the Original Nations and Peoples of Turtle Island in that region of the continent are attempting to address with the Canadian government. These range from the hundreds of murdered and missing Aboriginal women in British Columbia, and the Keystone XL Pipeline, as well as the exploitation of Indigenous peoples and territories, not to mention the extinguishment process that is being wrongly called a “treaty process” in British Columbia, the thousands of Indian children who continue to be put into the culturally assimilating milieu of non-Indian foster care.
In my view, however, all these pressing issues are the direct result of the history of dehumanization that the Original Nations and Peoples of Turtle Island have been subjected to for many centuries. I am fascinated with the conceptual roots of the existing idea-system that has been and continues to be used against the Original Nations and Peoples of the vast geographical region now called Canada.
That a leader of one of the Original Peoples of Turtle Island feels it necessary to go on a hunger strike for twenty days in an effort to win a meeting with Canada’s Prime Minister is, in my view, evidence of the phenomenon of dehumanization and disrespect.
An interesting view on Idle No More from Winona LaDuke:
“Idle No More” is Canadian for: “That’s Enough BS. We’re Coming Out to Stop You.”
Canada often touts a sort of “ better than thou” human rights position in the international arena. And it has, for instance, a rather small military, so it’s not likely to launch any pre-emptive strikes against known or unknown adversaries. And it has often sought to appear as a good guy, more so than it’s southern neighbor. More than a few American ex patriots moved to Canada during the Vietnam war, and stayed there, thinking it was a pretty good deal.
That attitude is sort of passe, particularly if you are a Native person. And, particularly if you are Chief Theresa Spence.
Okay, here's the link of the day for Raising Cain: a great Idle No More article by Harsha Walia at rabble.ca...I have also linked Blatchford's full article in the "related posts" section below the clip...
In her most recent piece, Blatchford has the audacity to refer to Chief Spence's action as "one of intimidation, if not terrorism." I am reminded of the words of Martin Luther King, "We who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to surface the hidden tension that is already alive." Blatchford provokes further, "there is I think a genuine question as to whether there's enough of Aboriginal Culture that has survived." Wrong, Blatchford. Indigenous peoples, cultures and nations have survived and thrived despite genocide -- despite a long, shameful and racist history of residential schools, forced sterilization, small pox and germ warfare, the breaking of treaties, legislative control including through the Gradual Civilization Act and the Indian Act, forced dispossession from lands and relocation to reservations, outlawing of ceremonies such as the potlatch and traditional activities such as fishing and hunting, and much more.
I was really glad to see that this hearing got at least some media coverage. Perhaps the DOJ's action in the Meridian case in Mississippi got things stirred up enough to shine a Senate spotlight on the pipeline? I hope the dialogue continues:
Wednesday’s Judiciary Committee hearing was a milestone for a movement that has fought to raise awareness about these kinds of policies in schools around the country. The issue sits squarely at the intersection of race, educational equity and criminal justice. The committee heard testimony from Obama administration officials, a former Chicago Public Schools student, reform advocates and criminal justice leaders who sought to answer some basic questions: What good has the rise of zero-tolerance school discipline policies, now responsible for three million suspensions a year, done for the students they were supposed to protect? And just as pressing: What justifiable explanations are there for the deep disparities that zero-tolerance school discipline so reliably produces?
“For many young people schools are increasingly a gateway to the criminal justice system,” said Illinois Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin, who chairs the Judiciary Committee. “A schoolyard fight that used to warrant a trip to the principal’s office,” he said, is increasingly landing kids in booking stations such that “this school-to-prison pipeline has moved scores of young people from classrooms to courtrooms.”
Just yesterday I posted a link relating to similar insensitive behavior by some students at Duke University...the Universe must want us all to take a hard look at this. The Colorlines article links to a great website that features a poster campaign meant to counter such demeaning actions as these two Minnesota students engaged in. Here's a sample:
See all the posters at S*T*A*R*S, Ohio University's Students Teaching About Racism in Society. We need more stuff like these students are doing. And we need to do a lot more talking -- as a national collective -- about race.
As I read this article I tried to place myself in history and did the math: my family moved from Chapel Hill, NC -- where my step-dad was working on his masters and PhD at UNC and Duke, respectively -- at about the same time that black students were finally being admitted to Duke. I was 15, just starting high school.
For those that do not know, I am a proud graduate of Duke University (Class of '93). As a black alumnus of one of the greatest universities in the world with a troublesome history with race and racism, I am often treated to the highs and lows of the Duke experience. Last week was no different as members of the Duke University Black Alumni Committee reached out to me to begin the process of organizing an event featuring myself, Grant Hill, Nia-Malika Henderson and others to commemorate the 50-year celebration of the presence of black students at Duke -- yes, it's only been 50 years. Duke beat Kentucky -- i.e. Duke men's basketball beat the University of Kentucky -- and this is always good. But in addition to these great moments -- moments that make me proud to be a Duke grad, we were once again treated to the insensitive (and now common) practice of white undergraduates who "dress up" as black characters and blacken up their faces in order to do so. Sigh.
In the full article Dr. Peterson includes a brief history of blackface minstrelsy as a demeaning and destructive practice in the United States. This was really interesting to me, but disconcerting as well as I recalled participation of family members in such activity back in the fifties...not to mention Little Rascals and all kinds of other Hollywood portrayals of black people that I grew up watching.
BTW, I'm about ready to launch a series of reflections on my experience of racism, white privilege and exploration of social healing practices in relation to racism in the US. Now that the pressure of the 2012 election is off, I'm feeling new energy around talking about this stuff.
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.
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.
