thepoliticalnotebook:

VAWA was passed in 1994 and has been easily reauthorized in years since. This year happened to be an exception, with Republicans unwilling to pass an expansion of the bill. Thanks to House Republicans (they’re really winning friends and influencing people all over the place these days), VAWA is no more, despite the fact it was reauthorized by the Senate earlier in 2012 and pushed hard by VP Joe Biden (one of the ‘94 bill’s original authors).

The Maddow Blog quotes Washington Sen. Patty Murphy (who was the Democratic point person on the VAWA reauthorization) as saying:

The House Republican leadership’s failure to take up and pass the Senate’s bipartisan and inclusive VAWA bill is inexcusable. This is a bill that passed with 68 votes in the Senate and that extends the bill’s protections to 30 million more women. But this seems to be how House Republican leadership operates. No matter how broad the bipartisan support, no matter who gets hurt in the process, the politics of the right wing of their party always comes first.

One of the standoffs that ultimately meant that the Violence Against Women Act disappeared after eighteen years of implementation was over Native American tribal rights. Cantor explicitly refused to back a bill that included expanded jurisdiction for Native American tribes in the prosecution of rape cases. One in three Native American women have been raped or experienced an attempted rape and in 86 percent of rape cases, the perpetrator was someone non-Native. Legislation that would have worked to allow tribal governments to exercise greater authority in prosecuting non-Native American alleged rapists was deemed unacceptable by Rep. Cantor. At issue were also matters of undocumented immigration and LGBT rights. 

To better understand the importance of what has been lost, check out this report on VAWA’s impacts and this on the impacts of VAWA on sexual violence public policy.

feralshorton:

orgasmogre:

Covergirl, I know you have a bad history of whitewashing WOC in your ads, but do I really have to explain why lightening Sofia Vergara beyond recognition in an advertisement for “the clean look” is beyond fucked up?

And then you shamelessly ran this ad in a People Magazine Spanish edition which also featured a story about Vergara, in which we can see clearly that this is not what she looks like (although who knows how inaccurate those pictures might be.) You’re selling “clean” foundation to the Spanish speaking population using a gorgeous Colombian actress while showing everyone that she wasn’t white enough for you. (Not to even mention the daisy imagery being juxtaposed in there as well.)

You’re not even trying to pretend that you’re not racist.

I had to reblog this, because I’m not good with names, I’m good with faces. I had no idea she was the woman from Modern Family until I googled her and found pictures of her that ACTUALLY LOOK LIKE HER. Like…wat.

this-is-not-native:

“Tell you what. You want to be a Native for Halloween? Go as one specific Native. Go as me. Put on your favorite pajamas, leave a bowl of candy on the stoop and invite your best friend over to watch horror movies with the lights off. Don’t go to any parties. Don’t go out for any reason. Because if you want to avoid seeing hurtful, stereotypical, racist costumes, if you want to avoid being assaulted by images of white people in cheap parodies of your culture’s sacred religious garb, that’s what you have to do. Because the prospect of running into some thoughtless asshole in a headdress is so viscerally upsetting that you don’t take part in Halloween at all. There’s your costume” -Shyly

moniquill:

kailerr:

One more fucking post about cultural appropriation and I will lose it. I’m a PoC. If I hear one more white, teenage girl whine about Native American costumes or bindis or fucking dream catchers I will flip my shit. This supposed “racism” is ridiculous. This is just dividing people as a whole. Embrace, learn, and love other cultures and maybe we, as a human race, can advance a little farther. It is not racist to wear a bindi. Bindis in today’s society really don’t even hold a meaning and are worn for fashion more than anything else. You want to tattoo a dream catcher on you? Be my guest, just understand what it means! If you stick to only the culture you have, you can’t grow.

You don’t speak for me.

I concur that it’s troubling when white people steal with words of POC on this subject and start criticizing one another in a not-understanding halfassed way in the name of ‘allyship’because they want cookies rather than just quoting us, but that’s a separate issue.

But fuck this Kumbaya/We All Bleed Red bullshit. I am not going to stay silent about things that hurt me because some other POC want to play nice. It is indeed racist to wear a bindi. Dreamcather tattoos are stupid AND appropriative (what, your thigh has nightmares?). Learn the difference between cultural appropriation and cultural syncretism. If you don’t have anything to add to the conversation, you’re welcome to step out, but it’s obnoxious to tell us not to try and educate people because you don’t want to deal with it.

private-revolution:

election:

The poll finds that racial prejudice is not limited to one group of partisans. Although Republicans were more likely than Democrats to express racial prejudice in the questions measuring explicit racism (79 percent among Republicans compared with 32 percent among Democrats), the implicit test found little difference between the two parties. That test showed a majority of both Democrats and Republicans held anti-black feelings (55 percent of Democrats and 64 percent of Republicans), as did about half of political independents (49 percent).

There are several bits of interesting information in this new Associated Press poll that found a majority of Americans now hold negative views of black people, but above is perhaps the most important one. Many liberals like to cluck their tongues at the “racist” GOP, but it’s good to remember that, under the surface, so-called progressives can often be just as anti-black as the bigots they condemn.

—Cord Jefferson

And this white liberals, is exactly why we don’t trust your asses

green-street-politics:

[TRIGGER WARNING: POLICE BRUTALITY, ANTIBLACK RACISM]

anarcho-queer:

Beloved Cyclist “Chuey” Munkanita Beaten Unconscious and Arrested By Police

Kachusha “Chuey” Munkanita is one of the most beloved figures in the San Francisco cycling community.  He’s known internationally for his hand-made cycling caps, made and sold right here in the Mission.  And everyone, from MASH to PD Bird, know him to be a “peaceful” and “non-violent” person.  He even delivers coffee, by bike, for De La Paz Coffee Roasters—a company undeniably of peace.

So it’s with great shock and disgust that we learn of his arrest and police beating while trying to monitor SFPD’s treatment of Latinos.  A close friend of his forwarded along his story:

Thursday night/ Friday morning Chuey stopped on the side of the street in the Mission when he saw the cops having 4 Latinos lined up against a gate. He stopped to make sure the youth were being fairly treated.

The cops then asked him to cross the street, when Chuey said he couldn’t observe from across the street. They (2-3 cops) jumped him as he was hugging his bike. They wrestled him to the ground then continued to push him into the ground, twisting his arm, slamming his head into the ground. He was in jail for almost 24 hours and released after his family paid bail. They charged him with 3 felonies for assaulting 3 cops with enough force to cause grave bodily harm and  2 misdemeanors for resisting arrest.

Chuey was released on $150,000 bail and arraigned yesterday afternoon at the Superior Court of California, where he was issued a public defender.  Chuey is also faced with steep medical costs after having to visit the ER for his injuries, where doctors advised him to have a cat scan.

Currently, there is no fundraiser planned to aid in his defense, but friends are encouraging people to purchase his caps, helping support him financially in any way possible.  You can get his caps online at Mission Bicycleor MASH (who will donate all proceeds to his defense), or in person at Box Dog Bikes or Pushbike.

Update: Roaring Mouse Cycles and All Hail the Black Market are also donating their cut of Chuey caps to his legal aid.

stfuhypocrisy:

[TW SLUT SHAMING, BULLYING, MISOGYNY]

 Neetzan Zimmerman

A 15-year-old Tottenville High School studentwho committed suicide yesterday afternoonat the Huguenot Staten Island Railway station was apparently the victim of ceaseless verbal abuse from classmates that followed her right up to the moment she jumped in front of a subway train.

Friends of Felicia Garcia said she was on receiving end of regular invective barrages, particularly from football players who harassed her over a past relationship with one of the school’s athletes.

“This poor girl was called a slut. She was teased on Facebook,” a senior named Victoria told theNew York Post.

Garcia, a foster child whose parents allegedly passed away, would often complain about her progressively worsening situation on Twitter and Instagram. On Monday, two days before she took her own life, Garcia posted one final tweet: “I can’t, I’m done, I give up.”

felicia garcia@feliciagarcia97

I cant, im done, I give up

22 Oct 12

Some students who were on the train platform with Garcia yesterday said the football players were still taunting her right up to the end, hurling “sexually explicit jeers.”

When the train arrived, Garcia reportedly said “Finally it’s here,” before leaping backwards onto the tracks.

“I hope the football team feels guilty for what they did to her,” said Garcia’s friend, 15-year-old Stephanie Imparato. “They were torturing her. How can you go through life being verbally assaulted like that? These guys are cruel and malicious.”

The NYPD is said to be investigating claims that bullying played a central role in Garcia’s suicide.

The same train station was the site of another teen suicide just over two years ago.

fantasygeeki:

glitterlion:

FinalCall.com) - Two students were expelled and seven suspended from Wynne High School in Wynne, Ark., but parents of two Black boys, who were victims in what parents call an attempted lynching, are furious, saying justice has not been done and their fear for the safety of their children.

Cheryl Webster said all sorts of things went through her mind but she hadn’t imagined what she was told. Some boys tried to hang Mickey, her child, and his teammate, MaKye McDaniel, with a noose during football practice.

She is furious because of the assault, incensed that school officials waited three days to notify her, and outraged because they illegally questioned Mickey without her presence or knowledge, she told The Final Call. Oddly, before she even knew what was happening, the principal and assistant principal were profusely apologizing, she recalled.

“This is worse than what I even thought it could be. What if my child would have been hung? The first thing they would have said was my son committed suicide. What kind of sh—-t, I mean, stuff is that,” Ms. Webster said, restraining herself from cursing and struggling to speak through pain and anger.

She recounted her 14-year-old son’s ordeal: On Sept. 24, another student called him to the back of the weight room. One boy lifted him up while another tried to put a noose across his head and he had to fight them off, she said. “I don’t care if you’re White or Black. What happened to my son should never have happened,” Ms. Webster declared.

“I never thought this would happen, especially not to my son because he’s a good kid, a good student. I’ve never had these fears before but I’m always going to be concerned because you never know, it might happen again. There’s not a day that goes by I don’t think about my son being in school,” she added.

During an Oct. 3 school board meeting, Superintendent Carl Easley read a statement from the suspended boys’ families, according to TV station WPTY in Memphis. “They apologize for the embarrassment to the school district. They apologize for any embarrassment and heartache they have caused the students,” he said, in an article published on the WPTY television’s website. According to Fox affiliate in Memphis, school officials labeled the incident a case of “extreme bullying.”

Final Call phone requests for interviews with Mr. Easley and the Wynne Public School Board were not been returned. Supt. Easley did say the high school’s administration thoroughly investigated the incident and found no criminal conduct, according to news reports. Wynne, Ark., is about an hour away from Memphis.

“I don’t care what they say. You can talk it around and spin it around all you want. I do not consider that horseplay. It wasn’t a joke to me. It wasn’t a joke to my family. It wasn’t a joke to the community either. That’s my child’s life,” Ms. Webster told The Final Call.

She wants the White players involved dismissed for the rest of the academic year. And, Ms. Webster declares, if the situation were reversed, her Black son would have been put in jail. She and Mickey’s father are discussing next steps but, for now, they are taking great care to protect their son.

“I can only imagine what goes through his head walking down that hallway at school, with people asking, ‘Was that you, Mickey? Was that true?’ He just wants to be left alone,” Ms. Webster said.

Rod McDaniel and his wife want to file criminal charges, but they don’t trust local police. Mr. McDaniel also wonders if his history of outspokenness on racial issues led to the targeting of his son, MaKye. He had complained publicly about an incident with White police officers the previous week.

“We want number one accountability and full maximum penalty for hate crimes and being involved in any crime, expulsions for the assaults, resignations of both coaches, and we want two Black coaches to be put in the head and assistant coaches places,” he said.

According to Mr. McDaniel, his son said he and Mickey were in the field house weight room for football practice. Some White guys began saying “they were going to lynch and hang all n——s,” Mr. McDaniel solemnly recounted. The White students took shoelaces, made nooses, and then hung the shoelaces around the jerseys of Black players, he continued. They then took pants and bladder bags used for injuries, shoes, made a complete dummy, and hung the dummy, Mr. McDaniel said.

Then students took a rope tied into a noose and placed it around Mickey’s head but couldn’t tighten it, Mr. McDaniel said. When his son McKay, 14, jumped up and helped to fight the other boys off, two boys grabbed MaKye, took the rope off of Mickey’s neck and tried to place it around his, said the boy’s father.

MaKye was able to fight them off, Mr. McDaniel said.

“The first thing I thought was the safety of my children. My second reaction was I’m angry, very upset at the coaches and the school because they failed to protect my child,” Mr. McDaniel added.

According to Mr. McDaniel, no one from the school has reached out to his family except to say students were suspended. But even that response followed an e-mail from his wife asking what happened to their son, Mr. McDaniel explained.

Everyone involved in the incident is back at school and on the football team, except one boy, according to Mr. McDaniel. He suspects what he sees as lenient discipline may have happened because one boy involved is the son of a coach and another is the son of a school board member. “All of the boys’ parents are either affiliated with the school or local government,” he charged.

Calls to school officials were not returned to confirm or deny the allegation.

Mr. McDaniel is concerned for his son’s safety and the safety of the other Black students as they travel for remaining football games. He said he has no indication steps have been taken by the school or football team to make sure Black players are safe.

Wynne and its surrounding areas are saturated with members of the Ku Klux Klan, said Mr. McDaniel. He is fearful of how Black players could be treated during road trips and games.

“We’ve had the Klan march in our city twice. I’ve experienced it both times. I grew up fighting physical racial fights all my life so I’m no stranger to this type of hostile racial environment,” Mr. McDaniel said.

The incident has affected his family, Mr. McDaniel added. He suffers from anxiety and his wife is afraid to leave the house or work the family business, a sports bar and grill, he said.

“My concern is how will they treat these Black kids on and off the field? My son has to look over his shoulder. Will there be foul play on the field?” he asked.

Rage. Just…rage.

Edit: I want expulsions all around! And I want charges pressed and sentences handed!

crunkfeministcollective:

Sharmeka Moffitt

On Sunday evening, Sharmeka Moffitt went to a local park in Winnsboro, Louisiana to “walk a mile and run a mile.” Sometime later, she was approached by three men in “white t-shirt hoodies” who doused her with flammable liquid and set her on fire. For good measure, they scrawled “KKK” and “nigger” on her car. Sharmeka was able to get to a spigot of water, put out the flames, and then call 911 for help. She is now in critical condition with burns to over 60% of her body at the Louisiana State University Medical Center in Shreveport, LA.

As of late Monday evening, the local Louisiana authorities were still vacillating over whether or not to call this a hate crime. Part of their hesitancy stems from the fact that Sharmeka could not definitively identify the race of her attackers. 

The fact that the race of her attackers is being used as a gauge for this hate crime demonstrates the limitations of how we think about race and racism in this country. This Black woman was targeted and subjected to severe and life-threatening bodily injury for sport. Her perpetrators then thought they should punctuate their crime by scrawling hateful racially incendiary messages on her car. What isn’t hateful about that?

And what is with all the shock and bewilderment? Winnsboro, Louisiana is just about 60 miles from Jena, Louisiana, the site of the 2007 Jena 6 incident. I grew up in Ruston, Louisiana, about 75 miles from Winnsboro. As late as the 1990s, the KKK marched in downtown Ruston, and my classmates bragged during class trips about having relatives who were high ranking officials in the terrorist organization.  Racially incendiary acts are commonplace in this part of the world. (Every damn part of the U.S. world) Like critical race theorists tell us, racism is not an aberration. It is part of the everyday, commonplace fabric of our lives. Before folks start decrying this act as an individual aberration of 3 sick individuals, perhaps we would do well to remember that their acts are symptomatic of the continued persistence of racism in this country.

Racism is like an autoimmune disorder. It attacks the body politic from the inside out, warring against itself, but frequently on the surface, things seem normal and healthy. We are only attuned to the problem when a flare up happens. But to continue to act as though the flare up is the disease is to engage in the most unhealthy and self-defeating form of denial there is. 

Then again, maybe it’s the hoodies. Selective historical amnesia being what it is, perhaps folks have come to believe that only Black men roam in public space under hooded covers threatening to do harm to other citizens.  Our rush into a postracial fantasy makes us too soon forget that white men, particularly rural Southern white men, are experts in terrorizing and policing racial minorities’ access to public space.

Even if it turns out that Sharmeka’s attackers are not white men, we should ask ourselves why her attackers would choose such a powerfully interpretive  historical narrative in which to play out their need to do harm to a Black girl’s body and personhood. Racism has a basic grammar, a set of rules, which we all learn to speak, having been immersed in it our entire lives. In a racist grammar, the subjects know that power is predicated on the ability to exercise violence (of various types) against a direct object, namely an innocent victim who bear the marks of the wrong skin color in the wrong time and place. 

And for all the folks who think Black women don’t use public parks for exercise because we want to maintain our hair styles, let this be an object lesson. Maybe Black women with modest resources who can’t afford to go to the gym  don’t use public parks because those spaces are unsafe. 

As of this point, the coverage of Moffitt’s attack has been minimal. I knew about it only because folks back home were posting info from local news sources. I guess it is left up to social media to convince the world yet again that violence against Black women matters. And I hope Black folks remember, too, that Sharmeka’s life deserves the same energy that we gave to the Jena 6 and to Trayvon Martin. 

Sharmeka, you are not invisible to us. We stand with you in your fight.

You can see updates on her story here.

ilovecharts:

bailapelirroja:

thefoxxypoet:

My only problem is that I wish this graph came with a link to the source of this information. I know this is true, but just to back up facts for people who may not know this information, a source would be awesome.

It’s an easy google. :) Here ya go:

http://www.publiceye.org/defendingjustice/pdfs/factsheets/10-Fact%20Sheet%20-%20System%20as%20Racist.pdf

http://fcnl.org/resources/newsletter/feb00/drug_trafficking_prejudiced_assumptions/

http://cwsl.edu/content/benner/aaRacialDisparityinNarcoticsSearchWarrants.pdf

Fucking bullshit by the way.

Been seeing this around for awhile and was hoping somebody would pull some sources. Thanks.

viafreakingdork