Racism Matters

Feds sue racist Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio

pecusita — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 12:00:49 -0400

Feds sue racist Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio:

The U.S. Justice Department has sued Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio after the lawman refused for over a year to turn over records in an investigation into allegations about discrimination, unconstitutional searches and seizures, and jail policies that discriminate against people with limited English skills.

Exploring the psychological motives of racism

pecusita — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 10:36:30 -0400

Exploring the psychological motives of racism:

Psychology Today goes over a list of psychological motives that appear to contribute to racism, among them: boosting their own self-esteem, giving their own group self-importance, anxieties about a changing world, survival motives, and seeking status hierarchy.

Seattle man attacked shopkeeper, called him a terrorist

pecusita — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 11:55:49 -0400

Seattle man attacked shopkeeper, called him a terrorist:

35-year-old Seattle resident Brock Stainbrook is facing assault and hate crime charges following allegations that he accosted a clerk at a convenience store. A detective testified in court that Stainbrook threw change on the floor near the victim’s feet, punched him in the side of the head with his fist then said “You’re not even American, you’re Al-Qaeda. Go back to your country.” After the police confronted Stainbrook, he allegedly admitted that he “struck a person on his turban” because he disliked him.

Outcries of racism as Texas considers subsidising the movie "Machete"

pecusita — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 11:00:51 -0400

Outcries of racism as Texas considers subsidising the movie "Machete":

Some texan critics of the latest Robert Rodriguez’s feature “Machete” are calling for the cancelation of a state subsidy, suggesting it would be state-sponsored racism. Prison Planet’s Alex Jones slammed the film as ‘pro-immigration, anti-Texas’, while Fox News attached the movie for ‘blaming everything that’s gone wrong in Mexico on the Anglos’.

In an article, Jones called for the cancellation of the subsidy claiming the producers lied about the story. He adds “Does Texas want to subsidize the films of Robert Rodriguez and continue to give him a platform to spew divisive racially-tinted trash oriented at Hispanics and attempting to radicalize their views?” The law rules out incentives for movies that cast Texas in a negative light.

Other film critics have described the movie as an ‘over-the-top pastiche of Westerns, revenge thrillers, cultural stereotypes, and soft-core porn’.

Op Ed: Georgia University dormitory name a tribute to racism

pecusita — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 11:00:45 -0400

Op Ed: Georgia University dormitory name a tribute to racism:

RedAndBlack.com, an independent student newspaper for the University of Georgia, calls for the renaming of a building that honors former senator Richard Russell Jr., a self-proclaimed white supremacist who frequently filibustered the civil rights act.

New Jersey judge rules against parents who gave children Nazi-inspired names

pecusita — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 14:03:46 -0400

New Jersey judge rules against parents who gave children Nazi-inspired names:

Heath and Deborah Campbell, the New Jersey couple who came under public scrutiny for naming their three children after Nazis, has been denied custody of their kids.

The family first attracted the public’s attention when a local Shop-Rite supermarket refused to decorate a birthday cake for “Adolf Hitler Campbell”. NJ’s division of Youth and Family Services removed Adolf and his sisters, JoyceLynn Aryan Nation and Honszlyn Hinler Jeannie, from the home back in January of 2009. The parents later accused the state of removing the children because of their names and relied on unproven accusations of abuse made by a neighbor and Campbell’s ex-wife, who charged him with abusing her years ago.

Earlier this month, a panel of judges cited the parents’ own disabilities and risk of serious injury to the children and found the evidence of his violence against his ex-wife and her children of a prior marriage was admissible in this case.

More:
Gothamist - Judges: Baby Hitler, Siblings Do Not Belong With Parents
Huffington Post - Adolf Hitler Campbell’s Parents Denied Custody Of Nazi-Named Children

Staten Island's Racial Tensions

pecusita — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 11:01:45 -0400

Staten Island's Racial Tensions:

[via Gothamist | Staten Island Advance Chronicles]

With racially charged attacks on the rise in the Port Richmond section of Staten Island, both the Staten Island Advance Chronicles and Gothamist look at some of the increasing anti-immigrant sentiments of some of the residents in the area.

Love Thy Neighbor? Not If He’s Different.

pecusita — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 11:15:43 -0400

Love Thy Neighbor? Not If He’s Different.:

New research reveals that people connected to organized religion are more likely to harbor racial prejudice.

[via Miller-McCune | Cobourg Atheist ]

A study by researchers in the University of Southern California found that, although racism is officially against their teachings, religious people are in fact more racist than agnostics. This “religion-racism paradox,” as social psychologist Wendy Wood explains it, is deeply embedded in organized religion which, by its very nature, encourages people to accept one fundamental belief system as superior to all others. Because religion in America is practiced largely along segregated lines, that derogation, and the sense of superiority that drives such diminishment of others, can extend beyond religious differences to race, class and ethnicity.

The study used nearly half a century of data.

Read entire study: “Why Don’t We Practice What We Preach? A Meta-Analytic Review of Religious Racism”

Ghetto Racism

pecusita — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 11:00:42 -0400

Ghetto Racism:

Writer Ying Ma shares an opinion article about violent attacks directed towards Asians by African-Americans all over the US and examines the media response.

"The Libertarian Party stands for Civil Rights. We are the party of civil rights. But there is no..."

pecusita — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 11:00:42 -0400

“The Libertarian Party stands for Civil Rights. We are the party of civil rights. But there is no permission given in the Constitution to pass civil rights law.”

- Lex Green, Illinois gubernatorial candidate.

[HuffingtonPost.com | Springfield’s State Journal-Register]

Illinois gubernatorial candidate sided with Kentucky GOP Senate candidate Rand Paul’s views on the Civil Rights Act. Green told reporters on Monday that the Constitution provides “no justification” for the law.

Asked if that means a local business would be able to deny service to black customers, Green said, “I guess I would have to say yes.”

The Color of Beauty Short film about racism in the fashion...

pecusita — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 22:17:00 -0400

The Color of Beauty

Short film about racism in the fashion industry.

[via PutABeatOn.com]

Neo-Nazi group gathered in Gettysburg, PA

pecusita — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 12:05:50 -0400

Neo-Nazi group gathered in Gettysburg, PA:

[CBS 21 News] Neo-Nazi Aryan Nations gathered at the Gettysburg National Military Park Saturday afternoon, where they were met by a group of protesters. In attendance was the National Director of the group, Paul Mullet, who at one point yelled at the opposing crowd: “We’re ready to risk everything to defend what’s right and what’s white in this world!”

Members of the Aryan Nations said they’re angry and fed up. “[we’re] Waking up white America. Letting them know that we’re not going to let Jewish media run us into the ground.”

New York pastor axes conversion of convent to Mosque in Staten Island

pecusita — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 19:45:49 -0400

New York pastor axes conversion of convent to Mosque in Staten Island:

Midland Beach Community, in Staten Island, NYC, pressured pastor Keith Fennessy from selling an abandoned convent to be converted into a mosque. When the proposed sale was brought up at a community meeting hundreds denounced the deal, linking the Muslim American Society to terrorists groups.

Muslim American Society board member Ayman Hammous said “It is a sort of racism. The community in Midland Beach has been hijacked by Islamaphobes.”

Robert Spencer, writer of JihadWatch.org, asked “Will you here and now denounce Hamas and Hezbollah as jihad terrorist organizations?” He also accused the MAS national director Wright Mahdi Bray of having ties with those organizations.

MAS representatives stated “There is no relationship, as we stand today, between MAS, the Muslim American Society, and any foreign entity.” The MAS is not on the state department’s current list of foreign terrorist organizations.

Reverend Fennessey had previously signed a contract to sell the convent and legal actions may be taken.

Maryland town working to remove racial language from covenants

pecusita — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 16:25:51 -0400

Maryland town working to remove racial language from covenants :

Cape St. Claire Improvement Association is working to remove racially discriminatory language from covenants that date back to the 1940s. The law in question reads: “At no time shall any lot or any part thereof be sold, leased, transferred to or permitted to be occupied by any Negro, Chinaman, Japanese, or person of Negro, Chinese, or Japanese descent. This restriction is not intended to include servants or employees of the owner or occupant of said lot.”

Federal housing law bars discrimination in home sales or rentals, but the covenants and their wording have remained unchanged mainly because board members were unsure of how to get rid of them. The board needs approval from 85 percent of the 2,400 or so homeowners to remove the paragraph.

[via HometownAnnapolis.com | NewsOne.com]

[Screenshot source][Direct link to detailed image] Personal...

pecusita — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 15:45:00 -0400

[Screenshot source]
[Direct link to detailed image]

Personal finance site MINT.com published an infographic article by Ross Crooks about “The economic impact of immigration in the US”. The site immediately came under fire for citing unreliable sources, including openly racist anti-immigration site VDare.com.

Writer Timothy Lee highlighted some of the implausible statistics for The Atlantic:

43% of all Food Stamps issued in the United States are to illegal aliens.
41% of all unemployment checks issued in the United States are to illegal aliens.
Undocumented immigrants cost Arizona taxpayers $2.7 billion

Lee points out that federal law prevents undocumented immigrants from collecting unemployment benefits, and statistics that illegal immigrants constitute less than 10% of the country’s population.

Ezra Klein of the Washington Post added some notes about the ignored economic benefits of immigration in general.

Lee Sherman, editor of MintLife, later issued an apology statement that can be found at the bottom of these articles:

The Atlantic
Gawker
Washington Post

2 Washington State high school seniors barred from graduation...

pecusita — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 14:01:00 -0400

2 Washington State high school seniors barred from graduation ceremony after racist prank

King5.com: News Article

Two students have been banned from their graduation ceremony at Auburn-Riverside High School in Washington State after a racially toned prank. Two students, Andrew Carel and Kyle [No surname specified], hanged bananas on a balcony above a stairwell students had nicknamed “The Jungle” because black students hang in there. Carel, 18, told local news station “If I did offend anybody, then I apologize”.

Carel added the prank was meant to be a humorous exchange between friends of both races. ”I just got caught up in the moment and wanted to do something funny, and in the end it didn’t really work out too well.” He added that even black students call it “The Jungle”.

Another student was charged with assaulting the school’s security guard after he tried to break off the crowd that gathered after the incident.

Kip Herron, Auburn Schools Superintendent, said “The incident was very incendiary […] What you described to me is a pretty derogatory, inflammatory thing to do. Pranks go overboard and they become hazing and very disruptive.”

Both students were barred from attending the graduation ceremony, but will receive their diplomas.

Jason Vassell, ex-UMass student, acquitted of murder charges after defending himself during racial attack

pecusita — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 18:29:11 -0400

Jason Vassell, ex-UMass student, acquitted of murder charges after defending himself during racial attack:

On February 2, 2008, Jason Vassell, then a student in the University of Massachusetts, was attacked in his dorm room by two non-students, John Bowes and Jonathan Bosse, who broke his nose and yelled racial slurs at him. Vassell defended himself with a pocketknife and was charged with two counts of armed assault with intent to murder and two counts of aggravated assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. These felonies could had resulted in up to 30 years in prison. The campaign Justice for Jason was launched and in December 2008, Vassell’s attorneys submitted a motion to dismiss the charges stating that UMass Police Department investigation was racially biased by immediately assuming Vassell’s guilt while treating Bowes and Bosse with care and respect.

As for the attackers, only Bowes was charged with civil rights violations, as well as disorderly conduct, assault and battery charges, all misdemeanors, then later acquitted in March 2009.

On June 4, the court finally decided to dismiss the charges against Vassell.

More about the story:
SocialistWorker.org- Finally winning justice for Jason (June 11, 2010)
USA Today - Supporters rally for Mass. student (March 12, 2008)
Justice for Jason - Jason’s Story

Federal Border Patrol disrupted a wedding reception in Vermont after calls of "suspicious people"

pecusita — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:52:30 -0400

Federal Border Patrol disrupted a wedding reception in Vermont after calls of "suspicious people":

Federal Border Patrol agents disrupted the wedding reception of a newly married interracial couple in St. Albarns asking attendees, including the African-born groom, for proof that they were in the country legally. Mark Henry, operations officer for the U.S. Border Patrol, confirmed there was a call about “suspicious people” on the street in St. Albans.

[via Burlington Free Press/Gather]

In U.S., It’s Open Season For Racism Toward Muslims, Or Even The Muslim-ish

pecusita — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:52:00 -0400

In U.S., It’s Open Season For Racism Toward Muslims, Or Even The Muslim-ish:

Writer William K. Wolfrum published an opinion article about racism towards Muslims.

Texas State Board of Education Approved Rewriting History Textbooks

pecusita — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 22:50:06 -0400

Texas State Board of Education Approved Rewriting History Textbooks :

On May 21, the Texas State Board of Education approved several changes to the state’s social studies curriculum.

During negotiations, numerous attempts to add the names or references to important Hispanics throughout history were denied, including one amendment that would had specified that Tejanos died at the Alamo. Another amendment deleted a requirement that sociology students “explain how institutional racism is evident in American society.”

All five minority members of the board opposed the revised standards, citing inadequate coverage of blacks and Hispanics and the promotion of conservative causes. Board member Mavis Knight, D-Dallas, accused some board members – primarily social conservatives – of manipulating the process to insert their own political and religious views. A small victory for the minority Democrats of the board included deleting a portion of an amendment by Republican Don McLeroy suggesting that the civil rights movement led to “unrealistic expectations for equal outcomes.”

The board decided to rename the US slave trade the “Atlantic triangular trade”. Former U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige said the proposed Texas standards “drastically understate the influence of slavery and the Civil Rights movement in our national story – it almost suggests that students will be learning that our liberties – and especially African-Americans’ freedoms – were kind of gently acquired.”

On May 20, the board voted to include the name of President Barack Obama to the history class. In an early draft, the board had declined to include his full name, instead just referring to the election of the first black president. The new curriculum also requires students to evaluate efforts by global organizations such as the United Nations to undermine U.S. sovereignty.

These standards will remain in place for the next decade, dictating what is taught in all Texas schools and providing the basis for future textbooks and achievement tests. These standards often wind up being copied in other states because national publishers tailor their materials to Texas, one of the nation’s biggest textbook publishers.

More articles:
NY Times: Texas Conservatives Win Curriculum Change (March 12)
Huffington Post: ‘Ultraconservatives’ Approve Radical Changes To State Education Curriculum (March 13 - Updated May 13)
Dallas News: State Board of Education (March 13)
USA Today: Texas education standards spark debate on slavery, politics (May 21)