Entries Tagged 'Race Relations' ↓

Listen to these lyrics closely… Don’t hate on the man… this is revolutionary!!!

Sherrif Joe spent his Easter weekend speaking to anti-immigrant / white supremacy groups. Our friend, Stephen Lemons from the Phoenix New Times reported on it here. The most interesting part of this one on one interview with “America’s Toughest Sherrif” was this little diddy:

I asked Joe why he had spoken to the members of a known hate group on the night before this press conference, one that has accepted neo-Nazis and other racists into its ranks, like skinheads and members of the White Knights of America.

…

Post-press conference, Joe was milling about talking to reporters%2

Article here: link

Washington, D.C. – Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr., president of the Hip Hop Caucus and peace activist, announced today that the D.C. Superior Court dismissed charges against him of assaulting a Capitol Police officer while in line to attend a hearing in the House of Representatives. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) represents Rev. Yearwood in his case.

On September 10th, Rev. Yearwood waited in the line for several hours in order to watch General David Petraeus testify before Congress. Minutes before the start of the hearing, Rev. Yearwood was told by Capitol Police that he would not be allowed to enter. When Rev. Yearwood questioned why he was being excluded from the open hearing, he was surrounded by officers and tackled to the ground.  He suffered torn ligaments and a sprained ankle.

Rev. Yearwood received letters of support from organizations including Amnesty International and the Black Leadership Forum. Americans across the country contacted the Capitol Police Department and members of Congress about the extreme and unjust charges.

The entire incident was caught on film and is available here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=qiradcejA6o

Rev. Yearwood said leaving the courtroom Friday, “I am relieved the charges were dropped, but they never should have been brought against me.  This one incident in 2007 has moved us back to 1957, where people of color are once again afraid to walk the halls of Congress. I am more heartbroken for the young people for whom I work to make government more accessible and transparent, who are now fearful of coming to the Capitol. We have an apartheid political system, where democracy while Black isn’t the same as democracy while White. These officers and the U.S. Capitol Police must be held accountable by our members of Congress for their horrendous actions.”

Anne Weismann, CREW’s chief counsel said today, “While we are gratified that these charges against Reverend Yearwood have been dismissed, we remain outraged that he was arrested in first place. We hope that the House Leadership will review this incident and take steps to ensure that it never happens again.”

Rev. Yearwood still faces charges of disorderly conduct stemming from this incident.

I have been on the road this last week, thus I have not blogged much. There is much to talk about regarding my trip, the people I have met, the political landscape in the southwest and current plans in the Denounce Torture movement. However, I have been getting increasingly concerned about the comments I have been getting in my previous posts, as well as what I am seeing today on the news.

A few days ago we saw in the news a white college student being escorted out of a political event being eventually tasered. This man (Andrew Meyer) was simply asking questions to Senator John Kerry. He was escorted out. He (to some accounts) resisted and was subsequently tasered. For the sake of this blog post, let’s not get to into the details of this case. Free speech, resisting or not resisting, soap box speech versus a question during a Q & A session, abuse of force, etc. - there are many aspects of this case to discuss. But let’s just simply focus on one thing: the media’s response.

This was front page news in most papers. It was on full rotation on the 24 hour news media outlets. Everyone spoke about this story around the water cooler the next day. The reason many media pundits gave as to the media pick up of this case… was because it was caught on film. Well, as you are a SpidelBlog reader you know I posted a similar video the week prior. This one of Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr. I don’t need to revisit this case, because I have blogged a lot about it. You all have commented about this several times. There have been extreme racists comments made in response to my post. There have been comments made to the effect that I am not covering Meyer’s case, and somehow I must be playing the “race card” with the case of Yearwood.

This event took place in the Halls of Congress and was documented with video as well. It was also an attack on a Reverend. Something tells me that this too (if we are using the Meyer story as a measure) should have been front page news. But it was not. A simple search and you can compare the hits of stories that mention Meyer’s incident versus Yearwood’s (1,700 vs. 39.) This comparison is not meant to negate one event over the other. Both are a serious issue and deserve the serious public scrutiny of having the media put it out there. The interesting thing I find is that it is more newsworthy that the white student got attacked, versus another black man. This is my issue, how American media response to two similar cases. Continue reading →

I posted Rev’s article then took it down and replaced it with this. It resulted in some heated debate amongst Democratic support versus third party work. I get so tired of that continued meaningless argument. For those who want to work outside of the Democratic Party… go… do it. Let me know when you ever create any tangible change in legislation, then we can talk.

The point of the post was the discussion of how marginal this impeachment movement has become. Very legitimate issues. Very legitimate cause. The tactics, however, the “white anti-war” movement has taken (dressing in pink, sitting in members of Congresses office until they are arrested, selling “peaches” for “imPEACHment” etc.) is comical and lacks any mature, rational, strategic thinking. This while talking about diversity, and not acting about true integration of various models of organizing that is successful in different communities of culture. That was the original reason for wanting to post Rev’s article. I agree 100% with his assessment of the lack of diversity in the so-called “organized” progressive-left. (I actually had to laugh while I typed the words “‘organized’ progressive left.”) Continue reading →