VIDEO: Black Barbies Get 'Natural' Makeovers For Holidays

Black Barbies Get 'Natural' Makeovers For Holidays

By: Ryan Duncan

It's the holiday season and that spells s-t-r-e-s-s for so many Americans trying to complete their holiday shopping lists. The true meaning of the season, "Peace, love, and good will towards all men" is usually passed over as an after thought, while over-consumption and the race to buy this year's hottest toys take precident. So it is truly refreshing to hear this wonderful story via CNN.com about a Black Barbie Drive. People bring in their barbies and transform them into natural hair barbies, free of alterations and chemicals. Their message:

"I just want them to know it's ok to be who you are. And if you don't accept who you are, no one else will." Helping little girls realize their worth. Now that's a gift that keeps on giving!

Diversity: Segregation IS Natural

Diversity: Segregation IS Natural

By Shannon Mouton

 

segregate (v): to separate or set apart from others or from the main body or group; isolate

It is time to be really real with each other...we are more comfortable with our own kind, and it is okay. It is natural.

Look at nature, lions roam the plains with lions, wolves run in packs with other wolves and even ants build highly structured colonies with other ants. Segregation is natural. It is only in the most complex ecosystems, such as a rain forest, where multiple species co-exist, interact and depend on each other. For them, integration is natural. 

 

As we are all homo sapiens, shouldn't it be easier for us to co-habitate?

This is where the rubber meets the road...we have to move above and beyond what is natural and comfortable for our own ever-increasingly complex ecosystem to survive and flourish. The troubling part is the breadth and depth of segregation, it permeates every part of American society and culture. For most of us it is an unconscious way of life. Consider Sunday, it the most segregated day of the week. Monday through Friday we labor side-be-side, have lunch together and my imbibe at a happy hour with each other. On Saturday, our children play soccer together, we shop, go the movies and co-mingle throughout the afternoon. But Sunday is a very different thing for most of us. Race-based denominations, congregations and conventions abound:

• The African Methodist Episcopal Church
• St. Augustine Catholic Church, "the Mother Church of African American Catholics"
• The National Baptist Convention, "the nation's oldest and largest African American religious convention"

This is in no way meant as an indictment of religion, faith, denominations, congregations, etc. These organizations and their founders were forced to segregate because of prejudice and fear in the 18th and 19th centuries, and while they are open to all, the members are still predominantly Black. And there are countless unforced examples in our lives:

• white music (country, bluegrass, metal) and Black music (R&B, hip hop, neo-soul)
• white entertainment (Everybody Loves Earl and opera) and Black entertainment (Meet the Browns and go-gos)
• white sports (hockey, lacrosse and swimming) and Black sports (basketball, football and boxing)

There are the so-call exceptions for each of these categories, you know who they are, the "blue-eyed soul brother" or the "Black diva."

 

Yes, yes, yes...let's just admit it, put it out in the open...we prefer being with others like us. We feel welcome, safe and empowered; we are in our comfort zones with others like us. However, consider this, "If you put yourself in a position where you have to stretch outside your comfort zone, then you are forced to expand your consciousness." ~Les Brown

 

How will you move beyond your comfort zone?

What one thing can you do to make your life more integrated?

We are the 90%

We are the 90%

By: Llenda Jackson-Leslie

We’ve all heard of the 99%. Most of us are in the 99%-- in New York there’s also the 90% that’s the percentage of New Yorkers who are stopped for no good reason whatsoever and are innocent of any crime or suspected criminal act or behavior.

What’s even more astonishing of the 3 million New Yorkers who have been stopped, questioned or searched between 2004 and 2010--- 90 % of them--- were you guessed it Black and Latino. The New York ACLU did an exhaustive report—using the figures from NYPD records. Yes, the police department admits that 90% of the people they stop are completely innocent. So why hasn’t NYPD cleaned up its act. Maybe the Justice Department needs to step in. Read the report here.

The prison industrial complex is also one of the key issues undermining the stability of communities of color, and we are more likely to be focused on Attica or San Quentin than Wall Street, unless the linkages are made. Occupiers must pay attention to occupants.  

What about the 13%

That’s the percentage of African American men who are permanently barred from voting by felony disenfranchisement

Nationally, an estimated 5.3 million Americans are denied the right to vote because of laws that prohibit voting by people with felony convictions. Felony disenfranchisement is an obstacle to participation in democratic life which is exacerbated by racial disparities in the criminal justice system, resulting in an estimated 13% of Black men unable to vote.  Sadly, in the all-out assault on voting rights by right wing extremists financed by the Koch brothers, several states have rolled back paths to enfranchisement for former prisoners.

Sotomayer dissents from SC refusal to hear death penalty appeal

The Supreme Court refused to hear controversial death penalty case—from our nation’s leading executioner-Texas. That’s the case where death row prisoner Duane Buck appealed his sentence arguing his right to a fair trial was violated when an expert witness testified that African Americans pose a greater risk of "future dangerousness." In Texas, a jury must find that a defendant poses a continuing threat to society in order to recommend a death sentence. Justice Kagan joined the dissent. Read Sotomayer’s dissent here here.

Criminal Justice: The Prison Industrial Complex Hurts The Economy

The Prison Industrial Complex Hurts The Economy

By Llenda Jackson-Leslie

Lately, some surprising folks have been talking about what needs to change in the criminal justice system. There have been repeated calls for a national conversation. But at the moment, people are understandably preoccupied with the worst economic crisis since the Depression.

But criminal justice is not unrelated to the economy. Our nation’s prison industrial complex contributes in large and small ways to our overall economic decline. We pay a cost through incarcerating large numbers of men and growing numbers of women who could be a productive part of the economy, and making them basically unfit for anything other than prison or continued criminal pursuits. We pay for the toll their absence plays on families in poor communities and communities of color. And all of us suffer from the warped economic priorities that push states to direct more and of their scare resources to maintaining prisons, while starving education, human services, arts and infrastructure.

As people organize to speak truth to power whether on Wall Street  or at the nation’s capital, real criminal justice reform needs to be on the agenda.

A recent report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics featured on the Sentencing Project’s weekly electronic newsletter proves that when it comes to traffic stops, we’re not post-racial. Read more from the Sentencing Project, here.

Blacks Three Times as Likely as Whites to be Searched in Traffic Stops

The survey showed that African Americans were slightly more likely to face multiple contacts with police officers, but that blacks were about as likely to be pulled over in traffic stop as whites and Hispanics. However, when pulled over blacks were more likely than whites and Hispanics to be arrested, while both blacks and Hispanics were more likely to receive tickets than whites. Blacks were also more likely to have force used or threatened against them by police officers.”

“A special report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics has found that black drivers in 2008 were three times as likely to have their cars searched during traffic stops as whites. The study, which looked at contact between citizens and law enforcement, also found that traffic stops involving blacks were roughly twice as likely to result in a search as those involving Hispanics.

Former Harvard law professor William J. Stuntz says the American justice system is unraveling.

 

Justice System Unraveling

Still more so the African American portion of that prison population: for black males, a term in the nearest penitentiary has become an ordinary life experience, a horrifying truth that wasn’t true a mere generation ago. Ordinary life experiences are poor deterrents, one reason why massive levels of criminal punishment coexist with historically high levels of urban violence.

“Among the great untold stories of our time is this one: the last half of the twentieth century saw America’s criminal justice system unravel. Signs of the unraveling are everywhere. The nation’s record- shattering prison population has grown out of control.

Outside the South, most cities’ murder rates are a multiple of the rates in those same cities sixty years ago — notwithstanding a large drop in violent crime in the 1990s. Within cities, crime is low in safe neighborhoods but remains a huge problem in dangerous ones, and those dangerous neighborhoods are disproportionately poor and black. Last but not least, we have built a justice system that strikes many of its targets as wildly unjust. The feeling has some evidentiary support: criminal litigation regularly makes awful mistakes, as the frequent DNA-based exonerations of convicted defendants illustrate. Evidently, the criminal justice system is doing none of its jobs well: producing justice, avoiding discrimination, protecting those who most need the law’s protection, keeping crime in check while maintaining reasonable limits on criminal punishment.”

 

Read the whole article on Salon.com  

What’s In A Name...A Heck Of A Lot

What’s In A Name...A Heck Of A Lot

By: Shannon Mouton

Whether Governor Rick Perry saw the stone, whether he or his father had it painted over or whether or not it was done before or after he got the lease is really inconsequential to me. What does matter is the heart and mind of those who live in that community and across this country who believe, “It’s just a name....”

For anyone to say it is “just a name,” as Haskell County Judge Davis asserts, ignores my history, condescends to my intelligence and dismisses my feelings. It is easy to be dismissive and say, “he doesn’t get it and he’s not trying to get it;” however, as a person of authority in his community, he has to “get it.”

He, and so many white men in positions of authority, with the literal lives of people of color in the balance have to “get it” if no one else does. Judge Davis, are these acceptable names as well?

Camel Jockey Junction
Chink Channel
Cracker Crossing
Dago Desert
Dyke Depot
Dink Hill
Faggot Forge
Guido Gulf
Half-breed Highway
Honky Outlook
Hymie Crossing
Mick Mountain
Polack Passing
Raghead Road
Spic Pass
Wetback Waterway

If not, then why is Niggerhead?

If so, then we clearly understand who and what you are your honor.

Criminal Justince: We Are All Troy Davis

We Are All Troy Davis

By: Llenda Jackson-Leslie

Troy Davis was buried on Saturday and several thousand people gathered to pay tribute and promised to continue the fight to abolish the death penalty. Mourners chanted,        “ We are All Troy Davis.”

 

A lot has been said and written since Troy Davis was executed by the state of Georgia. Michael Moore has vowed to donate the proceeds of Georgia sales of his newest book Here Comes Trouble to the Innocence Project. You can read Moore’s Democracy Now interview here.

  

Even right-of- center New York Times columnist Ross Douthat wrote that the execution of Troy Davis should cause us all to reexamine the criminal justice system. Douthat wrote “If capital punishment disappears in the United States disappears in the United States, it won’t be because voters and politicians no longer want to execute the guilty. It will be because they’re afraid of executing the innocent.” Read the whole column here.

 

Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens criticized the death penalty calling it pointless and needless, and while Stevens says he "can't say that the Court misapplied the law in any way." He is still troubled by Davis’ execution, "It's an example of cases in which there's some -- perhaps remote -- possibility of error, and whenever there's error in a death case, you cannot be very happy about that particular penalty." Click here to see the article. 

 

One of the most moving pieces of commentary was from Jen Marlowe at Racewire. Marlowe writes about how the machinery of death sparked a global movement to save Troy Davis that was both deeply personal and managed to cross the race, class, political and cultural lines that normally divide people.

 

Read Marlowe’s article here.

Did Berkeley College Republicans Go Too Far?

Did Berkeley College Republicans Go Too Far?

The adage goes, any press is good press, and the Berkeley College Republicans (BCR) have definitely received their share this week:

Madame Noire

The Huffington Post (had multiple articles)

Reuters

The Daily Californian (had multiple articles)

Right Wing News

News One

The Berkeley Daily Planet

CNN (had multiple articles)

The New York Times

LA Times

The BCR wanted to bring attention and awareness to CA SB185. Did they succeed in bringing attention to the bill or did they jump the shark? Are people discussing the bill? Are people weighing the pros and cons of affirmative action?

They wanted our attention...now what?

Wangari Maathai, She Grew Where She Was Planted

Wangari Maathai, She Grew Where She Was Planted

By: Shannon Mouton

Prof. Wangari Maathai received her PhD when a lot of Americans were still wondering if a college degree was necessary;

Prof. Wangari Maathai chaired her university department when many American women were still wondering about their "Mystique;"

Prof. Wangari Maathai led the National Council of Women of Kenya when some Americans were electing the first female Democrat to the US Senate in own right (not appointed or filling a seat of a deceased husband); and

Prof. Wangari Maathai started an environmental movement when most Americans thought tree-hugging was just about smoking marijuana, growing long hair and wearing moccasins.

Yes, Prof. Maathai had a heart for social justice...for the planet, her country and her people. She believed planting trees, bringing life back to the barren places of Kenya, would bring opportunities for all to have self sufficient and self determined lives.

What she accomplished was nothing short of miraculous. Consider the facts, she was a woman, from a Third World country, working in a Third World country and she convinced people to plant trees to better their lives and communities. In fact, they planted a bunch of trees...over 45 million trees in Kenya.

 

The world needs more Wangari Maathai, people with hearts and minds for social justice. This is not to say that everyone has to start an international NGO, move an entire country into action or win a Nobel Peace Prize. All we have to do is follow Prof. Maathai's example and grow where we are planted.

Criminal Justice: Creating A Carnival to Kill

Creating A Carnival to Kill

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole denied clemency for death-row inmate Troy Davis, who was convicted of the 1989 killing of Savannah, Georgia, police officer Mark MacPhail. Davis is now scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 7 p.m. Wednesday at a state prison in Jackson, Georgia.

"Monday September 19, 2011, the State Board of Pardons and Paroles met to consider a clemency request from attorneys representing condemned inmate Troy Anthony Davis. After considering the request, the Board has voted to deny clemency," the board said in a statement Tuesday morning via CNN.

Amnesty International reacted angrily to the clemency denial on Tuesday.

"It is unconscionable that the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles has denied relief to Troy Davis. Allowing a man to be sent to death under an enormous cloud of doubt about his guilt is an outrageous affront to justice... Should Troy Davis be executed, Georgia may well have executed an innocent man and in so doing discredited the justice system," the statement said.

Something is seriously wrong with our society when we can sentence someone to death under such conflicted and unclear circumstances. However, it appears many in our society applaud and cheeringly support man playing God, in deciding to pursue the ultimate justice upon our fellow man. Just take a look at this video in which Republican Presidential candidate, Rick Perry of Texas is questioned about the 234 death row conviction, more than any other governor in modern times. You can hear the applause from the crowd when this number is exclaimed, and Rick Perry shows no remorse or hesitation in his decisions. This cheering for the death of another human being is so disturbing, that it is tantamount to creating a carnival to kill atmosphere, similar to that we saw with the lynchings of African Americans in our early history.

If you're interested in attending a protest against Troy Brown's execution, there are several popping up around the country and being organized by such groups as the NAACP and Amnesty International. The following are details about a similar rally here in Washington, DC. I urge you to voice your opinion on this matter, however you can. A life hangs in the balance.

TROY DAVIS DENIED CLEMENCY

EMERGENCY RALLY IN DC TONIGHT 9/20
6 PM
TIVOLI SQUARE - 14th ST and PARK RD, NW

TAKE ACTION NOW:
Send your messages urging reversal to the Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole:
Call 404-656-5651, e-mail webmaster@pap.state.ga.us and fax 404-651-8502.

You can also call District Attorney Larry Chisolm at 912-652-7308 and ask that he withdraw the death warrant.

Diversity: Obama’s Judicial Diversity

[photo caption: In 2009 Justice Sonia Sotomayor became the first Latina to serve on the Supreme Court bench]

Obama’s Judicial Diversity

By: Tamara Braunstein

Earlier this week the Associated Press reported that since taking office in 2008, about 70 percent of Obama’s judicial nominees have been “non-traditional,” making him the first president to “not pick a majority of white males for the judiciary.” (Politico)

Obama’s achievements include becoming the first President to place three females on the Supreme Court bench, including the first Latina judge, and appointing the first openly gay male to a federal judgeship. What’s more, 21 percent of his nominees have been African American, and one of the 55 nominees currently awaiting approval, Arvo Mikkanen, could become the nation’s only sitting federal judge who is Native American.

Why is this important? In 2009 Black non-Hispanic males were incarcerated at a rate six-times higher than White non-Hispanic males and one in every 300 Black women was incarcerated, compared to one in every 1,099 White women (US Bureau of Justice Statistics). That same year, Blacks made up just 28.3 percent of the arrested population; Whites made up 69.1 percent of the arrested population (FBI Criminal Justice Information Services).   

So while it’s important to applaud President Obama’s achievements of improving diversity among the judiciary, our country’s historical and ongoing conviction disparities should serve as a vivid reminder that these changes have been a long time coming.

Video: MLK Memorial Emerges From Stone on National Mall

Watch the full episode. See more PBS NewsHour.

Video: MLK Memorial Emerges From Stone on National Mall

This past weekend marked the unveiling of the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial on the National Mall. However, due to inclement weather (Hurricane Irene) the ceremony was canceled.  Many were disappointed when they heard the news. Yet it didn’t stop them from venturing out after the stormed passed.  PBS, Hari Sreenivasan had an opportunity to reflect and report.

Weekly Poll: Maya Angelou Doesn’t Like King Inscription

Weekly Poll: Maya Angelou Doesn’t Like King Inscription

By: Pam Taylor

Maybe Maya Angelou has a point that the MLK Memorial inscription above “makes Dr. Martin Luther King look like an arrogant twit." I don’t think so.  Yes, it was taken out of context and perhaps future generations will have little knowledge of the quote’s origins.

Many of us still remember that it was just a couple of months before his assassination that Dr. King delivered that oft-quoted and prophetic sermon, instructing  his eulogists by saying, “If you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter.”

Even out of context, the inscription is the truth.  It is difficult to imagine anyone, now or generations from now, reading the inscription and thinking “egotist.”

 

I agree with Jenée Desmond-Harris, who wrote in The Root, “It would be impossible for the structure to perfectly communicate the many nuances of his work and personality in a way that would ring true for all of us. The good news is that it seems to be serving its purpose as the beginning, rather than the end, of a conversation about the civil rights leader's legacy.” Maya Angelou Slams MLK Memorial Inscription

What do you think?  Does the quote on the memorial make Dr. King “look like an arrogant twit”?

Does quote on memorial make Dr. King look like an arrogant twit?
	Yes
	No

Diversity: Seeing in Color

Diversity: Seeing in Color

By T. Braunstein

Do a Google News search for “diversity” and the results are as varied as the word itself implies. But one thing most of the resulting articles have in common is the acknowledgement that for whatever reason, in whichever industry or field being discussed, diversity is lacking.  

Why is that? If so many people, communities and leaders are talking about diversity – more specifically about improving diverse racial representation – why are the results not there?

One answer may be that too many people are adopting a form of enlightened ignorance: The idea that ignoring race equals approaching everyone with equality and therefore eliminating racial bias and discrimination.

It’s not hard to find examples of this – take a look at Forbes contributor Bill Frezza’s response to the recent NIH grant study, for instance. Frezza argues that, among other things, because the “peer-review process is entirely colorblind, with reviewers having no indication of an applicant’s race,” there is no reason to cry foul. Even as he admits that Blacks are underrepresented in the medical and science fields, and that the community “would be well served if many more students graduated high school, went to college, pursued advanced degrees and considered degrees in science,” he asserts that it would be utterly preposterous for the NIH to “fall for” applying such advances as Affirmative Action and other racial quotas to its review processes.

Frezza’s viewpoint, as common as it is, misses the mark in a major and extremely detrimental way. Given the sensitive history of minority populations suffering abuse at the hands of the majority, popular culture’s attempt at making amends by way of strengthening pride in racial diversity cannot be attained by simply adopting colorblindness. Putting a car in neutral after driving it in reverse doesn’t mean it’s all of a sudden moving forward. Diversity must be consciously driven.

True diversity can only be attained through a sincere effort to see and acknowledge race and then act against the abounding disparities that accompany it.

Frezza is right about one thing: it is a downright shame that minorities remain underrepresented in such advancing industries, and the Black community would most definitely benefit if more of its members had access to higher educational and employment opportunities. But that very notion serves to explain why ignoring race won’t do much to mend discrepancies.

How can we expect the members of our minority communities to truly reach equal levels of potential – including receiving government grants and funding – by ignoring the fact that they often begin with an opportunity deficit in many steps along the way?

Reflections on a Dream

Reflections on a Dream

By Phyllis Wilder

This past weekend I was honored to attend the white-tie, star studded event MLK: A Monumental Life, a musical theater production chronicling the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The performance was held at Washington, D.C.’s DAR (Daughters of the Revolution) Constitution Hall. Cast members captured Dr. King’s early days at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta through the civil rights movement.

Though the event was a joyous celebration of his life, it was not long ago that the African-American contralto Marian Anderson was denied the right to sing in Constitution Hall. To be present for an occasion to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. in that very place and listen to mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves sing "Ave Maria" by Schubert—was one of many poignant moments of the presentation. 

For me, it served as a reminder of the sacrifices he and many others made for African Americans to enjoy today’s freedoms and luxuries. I am humbled and honored to have been a witness to the completion of MLK’s memorial on the National Mall during the tenure of the nation’s first African American President. The fulfillment of the dream continues.