Real People
“I believe in the brotherhood of man, all men, but I don't believe in brotherhood with anybody who doesn't want brotherhood with me. I believe in treating people right, but I'm not going to waste my time trying to treat somebody right who doesn't know how to return the treatment.” You believe in treating everybody right whether they put a rope around your neck or whether they put you in the grave. Well, my belief isn't that strong. I believe in the brotherhood of man, but I think that anybody who wants to lynch a Negro is not qualified for that brotherhood and I don't put forth any effort to get them into that brotherhood. You want to save him and I don't.”
~Malcolm X, Speech to the Peace Corps, December 1964.
august 21, 2018
"Pity the Nation..." Lawrence Ferlinghetti
demo underground
6/27/18
“Pity the nation whose people are sheep,
and whose shepherds mislead them.
Pity the nation whose leaders are liars, whose sages are silenced,
and whose bigots haunt the airwaves.
Pity the nation that raises not its voice,
except to praise conquerors and acclaim the bully as hero
and aims to rule the world with force and by torture.
Pity the nation that knows no other language but its own
and no other culture but its own.
Pity the nation whose breath is money
and sleeps the sleep of the too well fed.
Pity the nation — oh, pity the people who allow their rights to erode
and their freedoms to be washed away.
My country, tears of thee, sweet land of liberty.”
― Lawrence Ferlinghetti
-----
Video of Ferlinghetti reading 'Pity the Nation' at:
https://bit.ly/2lEpHHu
and whose shepherds mislead them.
Pity the nation whose leaders are liars, whose sages are silenced,
and whose bigots haunt the airwaves.
Pity the nation that raises not its voice,
except to praise conquerors and acclaim the bully as hero
and aims to rule the world with force and by torture.
Pity the nation that knows no other language but its own
and no other culture but its own.
Pity the nation whose breath is money
and sleeps the sleep of the too well fed.
Pity the nation — oh, pity the people who allow their rights to erode
and their freedoms to be washed away.
My country, tears of thee, sweet land of liberty.”
― Lawrence Ferlinghetti
-----
Video of Ferlinghetti reading 'Pity the Nation' at:
https://bit.ly/2lEpHHu
A people who elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves, and
traitors are not victims, ...accomplicies - "George Orwell"
TOWARD A POLITICS OF UNGOVERNABILITY: SHUTTING DOWN AMERICAN-STYLE AUTHORITARIANISM
BY HENRY GIROUX | APRIL 17, 2017
"The established political parties and politicians are nothing more than crude lobbyists and shock troops for the financial elite who believe everything is for sale. The boundaries of humanity are now inscribed and defined exclusively through the metrics of the twin logic of commercial transactions and the politics of disposability. The horrors unfolding under the Trump administration are not only abetted by white supremacists, religious evangelicals, but also by liberals who still believe that capitalism and democracy are synonymous, and who appear to delight and rush to support any military intervention or act of aggression the United States wages against a foreign power. Liberals are affronted over alleged charges of Russian spying but say nothing about their own country which does far more than spy on other countries it disagrees with, it overthrows them through either illegal means or military force."
something to think about!!!
more american students have been killed in school shootings in 2018 than the total number of american troops killed in war zones around the world!!!
---------
reflections on today's events
*how do white women rationalize voting for trump?
*trump administration steals children from refugee seekers, a policy designed and implemented by racists.
*trump's infrastructure plan is a roadmap to privatization of the commons while his budget plan is a roadmap to starvation of the people.
*why don't repubs emphasize collecting taxes instead of lowering taxes? perhaps if everyone paid what they should we could have a fairer system.
*trump's grandfather was an ignorant immigrant and he was admitted to america.
*Why does the demo. party not heavily recruit for black voters because it is run by fools who think republicans will vote for demos.
*if you are not embarrassed by america's history, then you are living a history based on lies.
*trump voters elected a liar and thief as president who is now under multiple investigations, it just shows that you cannot tell stupid people anything
*if you pay attention, you will realize that you don't have a government that gives a shit about working people.
*Ignorance, religion, and war are the greatest enemies of mankind.
*GOP plans to kill endangered species act, i guess they won't be happy until their are no animals/birds in the US.
*the great thing about having trump as president is that now there is no reason to watch main-stream-media for truth and "fair and balanced" journalism, you know that it is all bullshit.
*republicans pretend having taxpayers pay for stupid border wall is the same as Mexico paying for it. but what is sad, their dumbass supporters will believe it.
*everything you think is true about american institutions: media, banks, businesses, education, healthcare, etc. is a lie.
*the colonizers and their descendants claim to own this hemisphere like a burglar owns your tv set.
*if america had a real government, then there would not be homeless people, starving children, POLLUTED air and water...
ACROSS AMERICA: Three African-Americans Claim Rare Engineering Accomplishment
Stacy M. Brown - philly tribune
8/21/18
The National Academy of Engineering has 83 new members this year, including a rare three African-Americans who are scheduled to be inducted in a ceremony in Washington, D.C. on September 30.
Lynden A. Archer, a James Friend Family Distinguished Professor of Engineering in the Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York; Gary S. May, chancellor of the University of California, Davis; and Gabriel C. Ejebe, the senior project manager for energy trading and markets for Open Access Technology International in Minneapolis; are the three African-American fellows.
“I think African-American participation in engineering is crucial,” said Archer, who joined the faculty at Cornell in 2000.
Archer has earned recognition by the academy for “advances in nanoparticle-polymer hybrid materials and in electrochemical energy storage technologies.”
A graduate of the University of Southern California where he majored in chemical engineering, Archer holds a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Stanford University.
“We basically live in an era where engineering and science are essentially at the forefront of both human advancement and creating wealth,” Archer said.
“It’s crucial to encourage minority and African-American youngsters to train their creativity in this field … it prepares you for so many things,” he said.
Election to the National Academy of Engineering counts among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer.
Academy membership reportedly honors those who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature” and to “the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/ implementing innovative approaches to engineering education.”
The academy does not disclose the racial makeup of its membership, but past Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (JBHE) research has shown that Blacks make up about one percent of the members.
According to an analysis of the new membership list by JBHE, it appears that there are three Black engineers among the 83 new members. Two of the three – Archer and May – have current academic affiliations.
The new members bring the total number of U.S. members to 2,293, according to JBHE.
“I am honored to be included in the National Academy of Engineering Class of 2018,” said May, the seventh chancellor of UC Davis and one-time dean of the College of Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.
“It is gratifying to be recognized for my research in semiconductor manufacturing and for creating programs to encourage underrepresented groups to pursue STEM careers,” said May, a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology who earned selection to the academy for his contributions to semiconductor manufacturing research and for innovations in educational programs for underrepresented groups in engineering.
A St. Louis, Missouri, native, May holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California, Berkeley.
Despite his success, he said there’s still a glaring need for more individuals of color in engineering.
“We need more diversity in engineering so that we solve problems that take into account all experiences and perspectives. I encourage young people who are interested in engineering to seek mentors who can help them get on a path that works for them,” May said.
“My early experience with the National Society of Black Engineers was invaluable, and I’m still involved with them. All of us can and should play a role in inspiring people of all ages to find ways to follow their dreams,” he said.
The third African American in this year’s cohort of new members is Gabriel C. Ejebe, the senior project manager for energy trading and markets for Open Access Technology International in Minneapolis.
Ejebe could not immediately be reached for comment.
Lynden A. Archer, a James Friend Family Distinguished Professor of Engineering in the Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York; Gary S. May, chancellor of the University of California, Davis; and Gabriel C. Ejebe, the senior project manager for energy trading and markets for Open Access Technology International in Minneapolis; are the three African-American fellows.
“I think African-American participation in engineering is crucial,” said Archer, who joined the faculty at Cornell in 2000.
Archer has earned recognition by the academy for “advances in nanoparticle-polymer hybrid materials and in electrochemical energy storage technologies.”
A graduate of the University of Southern California where he majored in chemical engineering, Archer holds a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Stanford University.
“We basically live in an era where engineering and science are essentially at the forefront of both human advancement and creating wealth,” Archer said.
“It’s crucial to encourage minority and African-American youngsters to train their creativity in this field … it prepares you for so many things,” he said.
Election to the National Academy of Engineering counts among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer.
Academy membership reportedly honors those who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature” and to “the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/ implementing innovative approaches to engineering education.”
The academy does not disclose the racial makeup of its membership, but past Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (JBHE) research has shown that Blacks make up about one percent of the members.
According to an analysis of the new membership list by JBHE, it appears that there are three Black engineers among the 83 new members. Two of the three – Archer and May – have current academic affiliations.
The new members bring the total number of U.S. members to 2,293, according to JBHE.
“I am honored to be included in the National Academy of Engineering Class of 2018,” said May, the seventh chancellor of UC Davis and one-time dean of the College of Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.
“It is gratifying to be recognized for my research in semiconductor manufacturing and for creating programs to encourage underrepresented groups to pursue STEM careers,” said May, a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology who earned selection to the academy for his contributions to semiconductor manufacturing research and for innovations in educational programs for underrepresented groups in engineering.
A St. Louis, Missouri, native, May holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California, Berkeley.
Despite his success, he said there’s still a glaring need for more individuals of color in engineering.
“We need more diversity in engineering so that we solve problems that take into account all experiences and perspectives. I encourage young people who are interested in engineering to seek mentors who can help them get on a path that works for them,” May said.
“My early experience with the National Society of Black Engineers was invaluable, and I’m still involved with them. All of us can and should play a role in inspiring people of all ages to find ways to follow their dreams,” he said.
The third African American in this year’s cohort of new members is Gabriel C. Ejebe, the senior project manager for energy trading and markets for Open Access Technology International in Minneapolis.
Ejebe could not immediately be reached for comment.
Nigerian Teens Win Top Prize at Silicon Valley Tech Summit for Designing Fake Drug Detector
By Tanasia Kenney - atlanta black star
August 21, 2018
Promise Nnalue, Jessica Osita, Nwabuka Ossai, Adaeze Onuigbo and Vivian Okoye took home first place for their mobile app used to detect counterfeit drugs. (Image courtesy of Twitter)
Five schoolgirls from Nigeria took home first place at the Technovation World Pitch Summit in San Jose, California last week for their groundbreaking mobile app addressing Nigeria’s deadly counterfeit drug market.
Teens Promise Nnalue, Jessica Osita, Nwabuka Ossai, Adaeze Onuigbo and Vivian Okoye — better known as “Team Save-a-Soul” — were just five of 2,000 app developers selected to represent Africa in the global tech competition, according to Quartz Africa. The World Pitch Summit is the largest tech entrepreneurship program for girls aged 10 to 18 years old and challenges developers to identify a problem in their communities and solve it.
The girls, who were mentored by STEM education advocate and 2017 Mandela Washington Fellow Uchenna Onwuaegbu-Ugwu, took home the top prize at the summit with their “FD Detector” (fake drug detector) mobile app. Experts say the app has the potential to save lives, as the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has long struggled to quell fake pharmaceuticals coming into the country.
Speaking to Nigeria’s Daily Trust, the girls said they were motivated to launch the app after seeing the rising number of deaths in Nigeria due to imitation drugs. African nations are the dumping ground for roughly 40 percent of the world’s fake drugs and several malaria deaths in Nigeria have been attributed to the use of counterfeit drugs, Quartz reported.
To address the issue, the girls will team up with NAFDAC to create a database of certified pharmaceutical drugs on which drug companies can upload their products once approved by the agency. Anyone with a smartphone, health professionals included, can then scan the barcode of a drug and the app will determine if it’s real or fake and display its expiration date.
Users can also use the app to report fake drugs to NAFDAC directly, according to the news site.
Nigeria’s vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, celebrated the girls’ victory in a Twitter post earlier this month.
“Congratulations! We are very proud of you,” he wrote, followed by a photo of the teens receiving their awards on stage at the competition.
This year’s Technovation winners will share a prize of more than $50,000 for seed funding and scholarships for further research.
Teens Promise Nnalue, Jessica Osita, Nwabuka Ossai, Adaeze Onuigbo and Vivian Okoye — better known as “Team Save-a-Soul” — were just five of 2,000 app developers selected to represent Africa in the global tech competition, according to Quartz Africa. The World Pitch Summit is the largest tech entrepreneurship program for girls aged 10 to 18 years old and challenges developers to identify a problem in their communities and solve it.
The girls, who were mentored by STEM education advocate and 2017 Mandela Washington Fellow Uchenna Onwuaegbu-Ugwu, took home the top prize at the summit with their “FD Detector” (fake drug detector) mobile app. Experts say the app has the potential to save lives, as the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has long struggled to quell fake pharmaceuticals coming into the country.
Speaking to Nigeria’s Daily Trust, the girls said they were motivated to launch the app after seeing the rising number of deaths in Nigeria due to imitation drugs. African nations are the dumping ground for roughly 40 percent of the world’s fake drugs and several malaria deaths in Nigeria have been attributed to the use of counterfeit drugs, Quartz reported.
To address the issue, the girls will team up with NAFDAC to create a database of certified pharmaceutical drugs on which drug companies can upload their products once approved by the agency. Anyone with a smartphone, health professionals included, can then scan the barcode of a drug and the app will determine if it’s real or fake and display its expiration date.
Users can also use the app to report fake drugs to NAFDAC directly, according to the news site.
Nigeria’s vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, celebrated the girls’ victory in a Twitter post earlier this month.
“Congratulations! We are very proud of you,” he wrote, followed by a photo of the teens receiving their awards on stage at the competition.
This year’s Technovation winners will share a prize of more than $50,000 for seed funding and scholarships for further research.
Delicious Purple Beans Connected One Chef to Her Family’s Culinary Past
Aileen Suzara’s Filipino recipe combines yardlong beans and squash with a rich sauce.
KARI SONDE - mother jones
AUG. 18, 2018 6:00 AM
Suzara with a basket of bittermelon at a Rooted Recipes Project community meal Thuy Tran
Aileen Suzara reaches into her refrigerator and pulls out a tangle of yardlong beans, a popular ingredient in Filipino cuisine. They look like green beans, except, as the name implies, they’re much, much longer. And instead of green, they’re a deep purple-maroon.
When Suzara, a chef and entrepreneur, visited her parent’s native country of the Philippines for the first time as a child, she remembers a neighbor carefully pinching through a pile of these beans at the early morning market in search of the best ones. “Something so simple to me also embodies the way people remember to eat foods that are fresh and local,” she says on this week’s episode of Mother Jones’ food politics podcast, Bite. (The interview starts at 17:21 in the player below.)
That sentiment is at the core of Suzara’s work: Her Bay Area food business Sariwa, which means “fresh” in Filipino, centers on reframing the narrative about her culture’s traditional food and using the cuisine in public health outreach through workshops and pop-ups.
Filipino food is having a moment right now—the ever-Instagrammable purple ube root and tasty fried lumpia rolls entered the spotlight a few years ago and continue to grow in popularity. But there are still plenty of conflicting narratives about the cuisine. “On the ground level or the family level or community level,” Suzara says, people tell her, “‘Oh, I’ve been told I can’t eat Filipino food because it’s giving me hypertension, diabetes, et cetera.’ I just think it’s so important for there to be many different stories, a middle way that can kind of show other facets of Filipino food. It has been in the US for a very long time.”
She discovered her own family’s ties with wholesome Filipino food while foraging around the attic of her childhood home in the Mojave Desert when she was eight. There, she found a small, tape-bound book containing traditional Filipino recipes and was immediately entranced. “It was for dishes I had never heard about,” she remembers, “I was like, ‘Oh! This is a little piece of who we are.'”
Suzara shares one of her favorite simple longbean recipes, below.
Ginataang Sitaw at Kalabasa (Longbean and Squash in Coconut)
By Aileen Suzara
“Ginataang” means to cook in coconut milk. This simple, comforting dish can be easily adapted to what’s available, and served mild or spiced with chili, vegetarian, or with added meat. Try it with fresh malunggay leaf (moringa), winged beans, or spinach wilted into the dish, or swap kabocha squash for delicata or another sweet, firm squash. Longbeans have a distinct texture and can be found at farmers markets and Asian grocery stores, but you can use green beans or fillet beans if unavailable.
Ingredients:
1 Tbs vegetable oil
1 small onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp grated ginger
3 cups kabocha squash, cubed
2 cups yardlong, snapped or cut into segments (green beans or fillet beans if you can’t find them)
1.5 cup coconut milk
sea salt and pepper
Lemon or calamansi (a small citrus fruit similar to a lime)
Optional: 1 birdseye or green chili, add briny flavor with bagoong (shrimp paste) or patis (fish sauce) or vegetarian bagoong, or fish sauce (this exists!)
Directions:
Heat oil in heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat. Add onions and cook until soft. Add garlic and ginger and sauté until fragrant. Add coconut milk and squash, cover, and simmer until squash is tender. Add longbeans and chilis and simmer just until longbeans are tender. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and citrus. Enjoy with hot rice.
When Suzara, a chef and entrepreneur, visited her parent’s native country of the Philippines for the first time as a child, she remembers a neighbor carefully pinching through a pile of these beans at the early morning market in search of the best ones. “Something so simple to me also embodies the way people remember to eat foods that are fresh and local,” she says on this week’s episode of Mother Jones’ food politics podcast, Bite. (The interview starts at 17:21 in the player below.)
That sentiment is at the core of Suzara’s work: Her Bay Area food business Sariwa, which means “fresh” in Filipino, centers on reframing the narrative about her culture’s traditional food and using the cuisine in public health outreach through workshops and pop-ups.
Filipino food is having a moment right now—the ever-Instagrammable purple ube root and tasty fried lumpia rolls entered the spotlight a few years ago and continue to grow in popularity. But there are still plenty of conflicting narratives about the cuisine. “On the ground level or the family level or community level,” Suzara says, people tell her, “‘Oh, I’ve been told I can’t eat Filipino food because it’s giving me hypertension, diabetes, et cetera.’ I just think it’s so important for there to be many different stories, a middle way that can kind of show other facets of Filipino food. It has been in the US for a very long time.”
She discovered her own family’s ties with wholesome Filipino food while foraging around the attic of her childhood home in the Mojave Desert when she was eight. There, she found a small, tape-bound book containing traditional Filipino recipes and was immediately entranced. “It was for dishes I had never heard about,” she remembers, “I was like, ‘Oh! This is a little piece of who we are.'”
Suzara shares one of her favorite simple longbean recipes, below.
Ginataang Sitaw at Kalabasa (Longbean and Squash in Coconut)
By Aileen Suzara
“Ginataang” means to cook in coconut milk. This simple, comforting dish can be easily adapted to what’s available, and served mild or spiced with chili, vegetarian, or with added meat. Try it with fresh malunggay leaf (moringa), winged beans, or spinach wilted into the dish, or swap kabocha squash for delicata or another sweet, firm squash. Longbeans have a distinct texture and can be found at farmers markets and Asian grocery stores, but you can use green beans or fillet beans if unavailable.
Ingredients:
1 Tbs vegetable oil
1 small onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp grated ginger
3 cups kabocha squash, cubed
2 cups yardlong, snapped or cut into segments (green beans or fillet beans if you can’t find them)
1.5 cup coconut milk
sea salt and pepper
Lemon or calamansi (a small citrus fruit similar to a lime)
Optional: 1 birdseye or green chili, add briny flavor with bagoong (shrimp paste) or patis (fish sauce) or vegetarian bagoong, or fish sauce (this exists!)
Directions:
Heat oil in heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat. Add onions and cook until soft. Add garlic and ginger and sauté until fragrant. Add coconut milk and squash, cover, and simmer until squash is tender. Add longbeans and chilis and simmer just until longbeans are tender. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and citrus. Enjoy with hot rice.
Scarlett Johansson tops list of highest-paid female film stars
Avengers: Infinity War star earned $40.5m, surpassing Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston, but is dwarfed by male counterparts
Guardian film
Fri 17 Aug 2018 05.43 EDT
Scarlett Johansson, who did not make Forbes’s top 10 list of highest earners last year. Photograph: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
Scarlett Johansson has been named as the world’s highest-paid female actor after earning $40.5m (£31.2m) in the year to June 2018.
Johansson did not feature in Forbes magazine’s top 10 last year, and the actor’s newfound earning power has been ascribed to her role as Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The second part of Avengers: Infinity War is due for release next spring.
Angelina Jolie is in second place, with $28m, based on her contract for the Disney sequel Maleficent II, which began shooting in May with a projected release date of May 2020.
Jennifer Aniston is third with $19.5m, which, according to Forbes, is less for her acting earnings than for endorsements for brands such as Emirates, SmartWater and Aveeno.
Demonstrating the volatility of Hollywood, Emma Stone, who led last year’s ranking with $26m, does not feature this year, while other notable dropouts include Charlize Theron and Emma Watson.
Johansson’s total is, however, well below last year’s male equivalent, Mark Wahlberg, who earned $68m in the 2017 list. Both, however, are likely to be dwarfed by the 2018 male actors list which – as suggested by Forbes’s highest-paid entertainers list published in July – will include Dwayne Johnson with $124m and George Clooney with $239m – the latter benefitting from the sale of the tequila company Casamigos to Diageo.
Full list of top 10 highest-paid female actors1. Scarlett Johansson $40.5m
2. Angelina Jolie $28m
3. Jennifer Aniston $19.5m
4. Jennifer Lawrence $18m
5. Reese Witherspoon $16.5m
6. Mila Kunis $16m
7. Julia Roberts $13m
8. Cate Blanchett $12.5m
9. Melissa McCarthy $12m
10. Gal Gadot $10m
Johansson did not feature in Forbes magazine’s top 10 last year, and the actor’s newfound earning power has been ascribed to her role as Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The second part of Avengers: Infinity War is due for release next spring.
Angelina Jolie is in second place, with $28m, based on her contract for the Disney sequel Maleficent II, which began shooting in May with a projected release date of May 2020.
Jennifer Aniston is third with $19.5m, which, according to Forbes, is less for her acting earnings than for endorsements for brands such as Emirates, SmartWater and Aveeno.
Demonstrating the volatility of Hollywood, Emma Stone, who led last year’s ranking with $26m, does not feature this year, while other notable dropouts include Charlize Theron and Emma Watson.
Johansson’s total is, however, well below last year’s male equivalent, Mark Wahlberg, who earned $68m in the 2017 list. Both, however, are likely to be dwarfed by the 2018 male actors list which – as suggested by Forbes’s highest-paid entertainers list published in July – will include Dwayne Johnson with $124m and George Clooney with $239m – the latter benefitting from the sale of the tequila company Casamigos to Diageo.
Full list of top 10 highest-paid female actors1. Scarlett Johansson $40.5m
2. Angelina Jolie $28m
3. Jennifer Aniston $19.5m
4. Jennifer Lawrence $18m
5. Reese Witherspoon $16.5m
6. Mila Kunis $16m
7. Julia Roberts $13m
8. Cate Blanchett $12.5m
9. Melissa McCarthy $12m
10. Gal Gadot $10m
NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar compares national anthem to slave songs to shame Trump
Travis Gettys - raw story
15 AUG 2018 AT 11:49 ET
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar compared “The Star-Spangled Banner” to happy songs slaves were forced to sing as they toiled for their masters.
The 71-year-old NBA Hall of Famer published an essay Tuesday in the Hollywood Reporter that called out NFL owners for bowing to President Donald Trump’s demand that players stand during the national anthem.
“To the slave owners, singing slaves would drown out their own cruelty and oppression, clothe them in a coerced choir of decency,” Abdul-Jabbar wrote. “But it wasn’t enough that the slaves had to sing, they had to sing their oppressor’s feel-good songs.”
Many black and white players have kneeled on field as the anthem is played before games, in silent protest of racism and police brutality, and the NFL has placed on hold a widely criticized policy requiring players to stand or remain in the locker room.
“During a warm-up game on Aug. 10, despite President Trump’s previous condemnation, several Eagles players kneeled during the anthem or raised their fists — their way of singing their own song,” Abdul-Jabbar wrote. “For them, lyrics like ‘land of the free’ don’t accurately represent the daily reality for people of color. They love their country but want that country to recognize the suffering that occurs when it isn’t living up to its constitutional promises.”
Trump accused those players of being unable to define the reason for their protests, but the former Los Angeles Lakers center dismissed the president’s complaint.
“Who would know better how to define their outrage: the privileged darling of white supremacists, the 94 percent-white team owners, the 75 percent-white head coaches or the 70 percent-black players who actually take the field each week?” he wrote.
Abdul-Jabbar praised two recent movies, Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman” and Boots Riley’s “Sorry to Bother You,” as effective social critiques of American life.
“The daily challenge for African-Americans is getting white Americans to listen to their song, especially when it isn’t a grinning, grateful or pandering patriotic song,” he wrote. “Both movies are about black people finding their voices and then having the courage to use those voices to tell their truths. But will America listen to what they’re singing, especially in today’s post-truth and ‘alternative facts’ environment?”
The 71-year-old NBA Hall of Famer published an essay Tuesday in the Hollywood Reporter that called out NFL owners for bowing to President Donald Trump’s demand that players stand during the national anthem.
“To the slave owners, singing slaves would drown out their own cruelty and oppression, clothe them in a coerced choir of decency,” Abdul-Jabbar wrote. “But it wasn’t enough that the slaves had to sing, they had to sing their oppressor’s feel-good songs.”
Many black and white players have kneeled on field as the anthem is played before games, in silent protest of racism and police brutality, and the NFL has placed on hold a widely criticized policy requiring players to stand or remain in the locker room.
“During a warm-up game on Aug. 10, despite President Trump’s previous condemnation, several Eagles players kneeled during the anthem or raised their fists — their way of singing their own song,” Abdul-Jabbar wrote. “For them, lyrics like ‘land of the free’ don’t accurately represent the daily reality for people of color. They love their country but want that country to recognize the suffering that occurs when it isn’t living up to its constitutional promises.”
Trump accused those players of being unable to define the reason for their protests, but the former Los Angeles Lakers center dismissed the president’s complaint.
“Who would know better how to define their outrage: the privileged darling of white supremacists, the 94 percent-white team owners, the 75 percent-white head coaches or the 70 percent-black players who actually take the field each week?” he wrote.
Abdul-Jabbar praised two recent movies, Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman” and Boots Riley’s “Sorry to Bother You,” as effective social critiques of American life.
“The daily challenge for African-Americans is getting white Americans to listen to their song, especially when it isn’t a grinning, grateful or pandering patriotic song,” he wrote. “Both movies are about black people finding their voices and then having the courage to use those voices to tell their truths. But will America listen to what they’re singing, especially in today’s post-truth and ‘alternative facts’ environment?”
Ex-Tennessee Star Gets NFL Chance After Rape Acquittal
By Associated Press - atlanta black star
August 14, 2018
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Former University of Tennessee star linebacker A.J. Johnson is getting a shot in the NFL with the Denver Broncos less than a month after he was acquitted along with a college teammate of aggravated rape charges.
Johnson and Michael Williams were acquitted of all counts July 27. They were indicted in February 2015 after a woman said both men raped her during a party at Johnson’s apartment in the early morning hours of Nov. 16, 2014. Johnson and Williams were suspended from the team less than 48 hours after the party and never played for Tennessee again.
While Williams was a part-time starter in the secondary, Johnson was a four-year starter and a pro prospect whose invitation to the 2015 NFL combine was rescinded after charges were filed.
“A.J. hasn’t had the opportunity to play football for the last three years while resolving a serious legal matter,” general manager John Elway said in a statement Monday. “We’ve had several conversations with him since he’s been cleared and have become very familiar with his background and character. Our organization is confident A.J. is ready to move forward and resume his playing career.”
To make room for Johnson, the Broncos released linebacker Stansly Maponga.
They also signed safety Shamarko Thomas after losing safety Jamal Carter (torn hamstring) for the season Saturday night in their preseason opener.
Now a 26-year-old rookie, Johnson was a three-time All-SEC selection at Tennessee from 2011-14. He was a four-year starter in Knoxville whose 425 tackles ran second among any Volunteer since the school started keeping track of the statistic in 1970.
In 46 career games at Tennessee, he had 30½ tackles for loss, three sacks, an interception, 11 pass breakups, three forced fumbles and four fumble recoveries. He posted double digits in tackles 23 times.
Prosecutors painted Johnson and Williams as entitled athletes who weren’t used to being told no. Defense attorneys argued that the woman had sex with both men at the same time and then lied, claiming she had been raped.
After a jury of seven women and five men found Johnson and Williams not guilty, Johnson said, “I just knew God was going to take care of it.”
The Broncos listed the 6-foot-2 Johnson at 243 pounds, but he said at his trial last month that he weighs 255 as he sought to revive his dream of playing in the NFL.
Johnson and Michael Williams were acquitted of all counts July 27. They were indicted in February 2015 after a woman said both men raped her during a party at Johnson’s apartment in the early morning hours of Nov. 16, 2014. Johnson and Williams were suspended from the team less than 48 hours after the party and never played for Tennessee again.
While Williams was a part-time starter in the secondary, Johnson was a four-year starter and a pro prospect whose invitation to the 2015 NFL combine was rescinded after charges were filed.
“A.J. hasn’t had the opportunity to play football for the last three years while resolving a serious legal matter,” general manager John Elway said in a statement Monday. “We’ve had several conversations with him since he’s been cleared and have become very familiar with his background and character. Our organization is confident A.J. is ready to move forward and resume his playing career.”
To make room for Johnson, the Broncos released linebacker Stansly Maponga.
They also signed safety Shamarko Thomas after losing safety Jamal Carter (torn hamstring) for the season Saturday night in their preseason opener.
Now a 26-year-old rookie, Johnson was a three-time All-SEC selection at Tennessee from 2011-14. He was a four-year starter in Knoxville whose 425 tackles ran second among any Volunteer since the school started keeping track of the statistic in 1970.
In 46 career games at Tennessee, he had 30½ tackles for loss, three sacks, an interception, 11 pass breakups, three forced fumbles and four fumble recoveries. He posted double digits in tackles 23 times.
Prosecutors painted Johnson and Williams as entitled athletes who weren’t used to being told no. Defense attorneys argued that the woman had sex with both men at the same time and then lied, claiming she had been raped.
After a jury of seven women and five men found Johnson and Williams not guilty, Johnson said, “I just knew God was going to take care of it.”
The Broncos listed the 6-foot-2 Johnson at 243 pounds, but he said at his trial last month that he weighs 255 as he sought to revive his dream of playing in the NFL.
I don't know her name - But she's my hero.
kpete - demo underground
|
BRYCE TACHE 🇺🇸
@BRYCETACHE I NEED TO TELL YOU THIS: THE OTHER DAY I DROVE BY THIS WOMAN HOLDING A SIGN PROTESTING CHILDREN IN CAGES JUST HER SHE’S BEEN OUT EVERY DAY ALL SUMMER SHE’S BEEN FLIPPED OFF HAD DRINKS THROWN AT HER CURSED AT AND SHE’S STILL OUT THERE I DON’T KNOW HER NAME BUT SHE’S MY HERO. 5:35 AM - AUG 12, 2018 |
D.L. Hughley Sets Chris Cuomo Straight On Bigotry: ‘White Men Don’t Decide What Racism Is’
By Tanasia Kenney - atlanta black star
August 10, 2018
Comedian D.L. Hughley didn’t hold back in his biting rebuke of President Donald Trump’s “wanton” racism and the bigotry of those who support him.
During a heated discussion with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, the veteran actor addressed the one-year anniversary of the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Hughley, an outspoken advocate for social justice, slammed the president’s tepid response to last year’s violence, where Trump claimed there was blame to be had “on both sides.”
“There cannot be a moral equivalence,” Hughley said on the matter. “Either it’s wrong to be hateful and to promote violence and apathy and to be angry and believe in the supremacy of one race over another, or it’s not.”
“Now we have people quibbling about it,” he added, quoting people who argue that liberal protesters are “just as bad” as the white nationalists they oppose.
“If somebody oppresses me and I fight back, then I’m just as bad as the guy who was determined to take all my rights away?” Hughley said. “That’s where we are in America right now.”
Cuomo mentioned the president’s “both sides” comment in response to the rally, which the comedian argued was a reflection of the moral tone of the entire country.
“The bottom line in this country: it is wrong to be hateful and to lead people in hate and try to subvert other people’s rights and voices and to be brutal to them, or it isn’t,” he argued.
When asked if he thought Trump would disagree with that statement, Hughley issued a sharp response.
“I believe the president is a wanton racist, and I believe that America is not uncomfortable with it,” he said. “When you tell me 89 percent of Republicans support him no matter what he does, I’ll say this. I can’t say all his supporters are racist, but I can say, for them, being a racist is not a disqualifier.”
Cuomo brought up the “white extremists and white power people and the Qanon and the conspiracy crazies” who don’t see Trump is a racist, but his guest quickly cut him off.
“White men don’t get to decide what racism is,” Hughley said, shutting down the argument. “They were so bad at judging it every time it happened. They were bad at judging it during slavery. They were bad at judging it during Jim Crow. White people don’t get to play this game. You don’t get to decide what the rules are here.”
During a heated discussion with CNN’s Chris Cuomo, the veteran actor addressed the one-year anniversary of the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Hughley, an outspoken advocate for social justice, slammed the president’s tepid response to last year’s violence, where Trump claimed there was blame to be had “on both sides.”
“There cannot be a moral equivalence,” Hughley said on the matter. “Either it’s wrong to be hateful and to promote violence and apathy and to be angry and believe in the supremacy of one race over another, or it’s not.”
“Now we have people quibbling about it,” he added, quoting people who argue that liberal protesters are “just as bad” as the white nationalists they oppose.
“If somebody oppresses me and I fight back, then I’m just as bad as the guy who was determined to take all my rights away?” Hughley said. “That’s where we are in America right now.”
Cuomo mentioned the president’s “both sides” comment in response to the rally, which the comedian argued was a reflection of the moral tone of the entire country.
“The bottom line in this country: it is wrong to be hateful and to lead people in hate and try to subvert other people’s rights and voices and to be brutal to them, or it isn’t,” he argued.
When asked if he thought Trump would disagree with that statement, Hughley issued a sharp response.
“I believe the president is a wanton racist, and I believe that America is not uncomfortable with it,” he said. “When you tell me 89 percent of Republicans support him no matter what he does, I’ll say this. I can’t say all his supporters are racist, but I can say, for them, being a racist is not a disqualifier.”
Cuomo brought up the “white extremists and white power people and the Qanon and the conspiracy crazies” who don’t see Trump is a racist, but his guest quickly cut him off.
“White men don’t get to decide what racism is,” Hughley said, shutting down the argument. “They were so bad at judging it every time it happened. They were bad at judging it during slavery. They were bad at judging it during Jim Crow. White people don’t get to play this game. You don’t get to decide what the rules are here.”
Kanye West Silent About Whether Trump Cares for Blacks
By Associated Press - atlanta black star
August 10, 201
West appeared on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live ” on Thursday.
West discussed his support for Trump and questioned why people go after the president instead of trying “love.”
Kimmel pointed to the policy that separated immigrant families and asked: “You’ve so famously and so powerfully said ‘George Bush doesn’t care about black people,’ it makes me wonder what makes you think that Donald Trump does, or any people at all?”
Kanye considered the question without answering before Kimmel took a commercial break.
Kimmel earlier asked West if he was worried about his wife, Kim Kardashian West, being alone with the president in the Oval Office. The rapper replied Trump “is a player.”
West discussed his support for Trump and questioned why people go after the president instead of trying “love.”
Kimmel pointed to the policy that separated immigrant families and asked: “You’ve so famously and so powerfully said ‘George Bush doesn’t care about black people,’ it makes me wonder what makes you think that Donald Trump does, or any people at all?”
Kanye considered the question without answering before Kimmel took a commercial break.
Kimmel earlier asked West if he was worried about his wife, Kim Kardashian West, being alone with the president in the Oval Office. The rapper replied Trump “is a player.”
interview: Charlottesville's first black female mayor: 'We’re not a post-racial nation'
lois beckett - the guardian
Tue 7 Aug 2018 06.00 EDT
Nikuyah Walker: ‘You have to be an active participant in a true democracy.’ Photograph: Pat Jarrett for the Guardian
A year after white supremacists marched through the liberal city, Nikuyah Walker says the left needs less talk and more action
Nikuyah Walker: ‘You have to be an active participant in a true democracy.’ Photograph: Pat Jarrett for the GuardianA year ago, white supremacist groups marched with torches through the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia. The city reacted by electing its first black female mayor, Nikuyah Walker, 38, a fierce critic of how city officials had handled last year’s far-right protests.
An independent, Walker ran under the campaign slogan “Unmasking the illusion”. She argued that Charlottesville’s Democratic politicians had failed to do enough to tackle systemic racism and economic inequality, and that it was time for a deeper change.
Walker spoke to the Guardian about her policy agenda, what it was like growing up black in Charlottesville, and why she believes Democratic politicians “don’t know how to reform systems”. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
---
What was it like growing up as a black woman in Charlottesville?
Growing up here was tough. There’s a Michelle Alexander quote from The New Jim Crow: “The current system of control depends on black exceptionalism; it is not disproved or undermined by it.”
I’ve never been interested in only saving myself or my family and getting out. That’s not appealing to me.
I was a teen mother. I raised three kids. My youngest kid is 15. I don’t know a black native person [in Charlottesville] who does not have a significant percentage of their family who’s either been incarcerated or is still incarcerated. There is poverty all around, and all the trauma that goes with poverty, you see it on a day-to-day basis. I was fortunate enough, I came from a long line of women – the matriarchs in my family are absolutely amazing. What they had in terms of wealth was tons of love and care.
---
What are you trying to achieve as mayor of Charlottesville?
One of the main things that I’m here to do is to call attention to the liberal progressive Democratic structure that’s in place, that believes that their best intentions are enough. You need actions behind those intentions. You can’t just use words.
I’m attempting to make sure – and it’s painful – that people who work for the city, people who receive money from the city, understand that if they’re not moving the needle, making progress, changing lives, if they don’t truly understand service, they will not be in a position to receive resources, or I will criticize you publicly.
Here it’s that polite, you know, civil political scene. I tell people all the time: “In very polite, civil discussions around boardroom tables, eating Baggby’s sandwiches, you have put policies in place that have ruined generations of native families in this area.” So I don’t really care about your request for civility, because even though you are not loud, you are not yelling, you still impacted people’s lives in a way that affected three or four generations at a time.
It’s very easy for people to blame [the white nationalist] Richard Spencer and Jason Kessler [the organizer of last year’s white supremacist rally], but they haven’t been in charge here.
Charlottesville is a very wealthy city, and it’s also an overwhelmingly liberal city. What kind of pushback have you seen to your policy agenda?
If you talk about affordable housing, [people will say]: “Oh, I want to work on affordable housing.” They’re talking about 80% of the area median income. Sixty thousand or so dollars. They’re saying: “I’m very comfortable living next to a nurse, a police officer, a teacher, a firefighter.” When you’re talking about zero to 30% of the area median income, [the reaction is]: “They can’t live among us. Why are they that poor?”
You have individuals who are in a public school setting who are getting top-notch educations, and people in the same schools, walking in the same hallways, drinking from the same water fountains, who cannot read or write. When you challenge those numbers, there are so many excuses that begin with: “Why aren’t families teaching their kids, preparing them for school?” Well, generations haven’t been prepared. And generations are being miseducated. At what point did they learn enough to be able to teach their kids?
What have been the reactions to your political approach?
I feel like the majority of the city council, when I walk in the room, the conversation shifts. People are quiet. I’m kept out of a lot of discussions. It’s still worth it. It changes the conversation. They are no longer in control of the narrative. Whether they exclude me or not, I’m in the story.
Nikuyah Walker: ‘You have to be an active participant in a true democracy.’ Photograph: Pat Jarrett for the GuardianA year ago, white supremacist groups marched with torches through the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia. The city reacted by electing its first black female mayor, Nikuyah Walker, 38, a fierce critic of how city officials had handled last year’s far-right protests.
An independent, Walker ran under the campaign slogan “Unmasking the illusion”. She argued that Charlottesville’s Democratic politicians had failed to do enough to tackle systemic racism and economic inequality, and that it was time for a deeper change.
Walker spoke to the Guardian about her policy agenda, what it was like growing up black in Charlottesville, and why she believes Democratic politicians “don’t know how to reform systems”. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
---
What was it like growing up as a black woman in Charlottesville?
Growing up here was tough. There’s a Michelle Alexander quote from The New Jim Crow: “The current system of control depends on black exceptionalism; it is not disproved or undermined by it.”
I’ve never been interested in only saving myself or my family and getting out. That’s not appealing to me.
I was a teen mother. I raised three kids. My youngest kid is 15. I don’t know a black native person [in Charlottesville] who does not have a significant percentage of their family who’s either been incarcerated or is still incarcerated. There is poverty all around, and all the trauma that goes with poverty, you see it on a day-to-day basis. I was fortunate enough, I came from a long line of women – the matriarchs in my family are absolutely amazing. What they had in terms of wealth was tons of love and care.
---
What are you trying to achieve as mayor of Charlottesville?
One of the main things that I’m here to do is to call attention to the liberal progressive Democratic structure that’s in place, that believes that their best intentions are enough. You need actions behind those intentions. You can’t just use words.
I’m attempting to make sure – and it’s painful – that people who work for the city, people who receive money from the city, understand that if they’re not moving the needle, making progress, changing lives, if they don’t truly understand service, they will not be in a position to receive resources, or I will criticize you publicly.
Here it’s that polite, you know, civil political scene. I tell people all the time: “In very polite, civil discussions around boardroom tables, eating Baggby’s sandwiches, you have put policies in place that have ruined generations of native families in this area.” So I don’t really care about your request for civility, because even though you are not loud, you are not yelling, you still impacted people’s lives in a way that affected three or four generations at a time.
It’s very easy for people to blame [the white nationalist] Richard Spencer and Jason Kessler [the organizer of last year’s white supremacist rally], but they haven’t been in charge here.
Charlottesville is a very wealthy city, and it’s also an overwhelmingly liberal city. What kind of pushback have you seen to your policy agenda?
If you talk about affordable housing, [people will say]: “Oh, I want to work on affordable housing.” They’re talking about 80% of the area median income. Sixty thousand or so dollars. They’re saying: “I’m very comfortable living next to a nurse, a police officer, a teacher, a firefighter.” When you’re talking about zero to 30% of the area median income, [the reaction is]: “They can’t live among us. Why are they that poor?”
You have individuals who are in a public school setting who are getting top-notch educations, and people in the same schools, walking in the same hallways, drinking from the same water fountains, who cannot read or write. When you challenge those numbers, there are so many excuses that begin with: “Why aren’t families teaching their kids, preparing them for school?” Well, generations haven’t been prepared. And generations are being miseducated. At what point did they learn enough to be able to teach their kids?
What have been the reactions to your political approach?
I feel like the majority of the city council, when I walk in the room, the conversation shifts. People are quiet. I’m kept out of a lot of discussions. It’s still worth it. It changes the conversation. They are no longer in control of the narrative. Whether they exclude me or not, I’m in the story.
How Sharice Davids traded in MMA for a shot at political history
The professional fighter and lawyer is aiming to become the first Native American woman elected to Congress. Her journey has been different to say the least
Karim Zidan
the guardian
Mon 6 Aug 2018 05.00 EDT
Sharice Davids traded a career in mixed martial arts for a run at national politics. Photograph: Courtesy of Sharice Davids
On 1 November 2013, Sharice Davids stepped into the cage for her first professional mixed martial arts fight. Dressed in grey leggings with a pink band around the waist and a black sports bra, Davids paced around her corner of the cage, eyeing her opponent, Nadia Nixon, as the ring announcer roared their names to the eager crowd in Kansas City, Missouri.
At the sound of the bell, Davids leapt forward and landed a clean left hook that sent her opponent tumbling to the mat. The crowd cheered as Davids mounted her opponent and continued her onslaught. Not long afterwards, the referee separated the fighters and allowed Davids back to her feet. She had won her first professional fight in less than two minutes.
The Kansas native was calm, precise and brutally effective in victory – a perfect start to what could have been a fruitful career. Though it was clear that Davids belonged in the fight game, few realized that the stage she was destined to compete on would be the political arena.
The 37-year-old is one of the Democrats running against Republican Kevin Yoder in Kansas’s third congressional district. Since her campaign took off, Davids has received support from the American political action committee, Emily’s List, which announced it was putting $400,000 of Super Pac moneybehind her. Should Davids win Tuesday’s Democratic primary, she will run against Yoder in the general election on 6 November. As a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, a Native American tribe in Wisconsin, Davids also has the opportunity to make history as the first Native American woman to win a seat in the US Congress.
For Davids, her dual lifestyle as a public servant and a fighter has existed since college. “I had my first [amateur] fight towards the end of 2006 and I finished my bachelor’s degree in May of 2007,” Davids tells the Guardian during a telephone interview.
As a child, Davids was fascinated with martial arts. She was obsessed with Bruce Lee, admiring his work ethic and discipline, and mimicked him by wearing a black belt around the house. However, despite her fascination with Lee, Davids did not begin practicing martial arts until she was a 19-year-old college student.
“I didn’t get to train because I was raised by a single mom,” Davids says, recalling her childhood. “There were three of us and it was just too expensive to pay for me to do martial arts practice.”
Davids started by learning capoeira and karate. She then moved on to taekwondo with a coach who had experience training MMA professionals. After several months together, the coach asked if she would be interested in fighting in a local MMA event. Davids had little interest in participating in what she believed was a barbaric sport. Over time, however, Davids learned more about the sport, as well as the training regimen that fighters go through in preparation for bouts.
By 2006, Davids was prepared to take a leap of faith. She made her amateur debut at the International Sport Combat Federation’s Midwest FightFest, and won in less than a minute. Victory was exhilarating but Davids decided to instead to focus on her studies at Cornell law school. She knew better than to try to make a career out of the sport she had grown to love.
“In terms of career options, I didn’t think about MMA at all,” says Davids. “I don’t know if I really thought it was a career path for many women. For someone like me, even in my prime, it wasn’t something I really considered.”
In February, 2007 — less than a year after Davids made her amateur debut — Gina Carano and Julie Kedzie competed in the first women’s MMA fight to air on live television — a groundbreaking moment for women who sought a career in MMA. Davids and a group of her friends gathered that night to watch the historic fight.
Within a few years, the sport had changed dramatically. The charismatic and supremely talented Ronda Rousey was on her way to becoming one of UFC’s biggest draws, and her sudden rise to stardom led to the creation of a women’s UFC bantamweight division. Suddenly, it seemed as though there were more female fighters getting into the sport than ever before. Even Davids began to ask herself whether her time had finally come.
When the UFC announced a 115lbs women’s edition of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) — a reality show that places fighters in a mansion for several weeks as they work their way through a tournament for a “six-figure UFC contract” — Davids jumped at the opportunity. “I had been so passionate about martial arts for so long that I felt that I wanted to at least try, which is why I took my first pro fight.”
Davids won her first pro fight by submission, but lost the second before signing up for the TUF tryouts in Las Vegas. She was overwhelmed by the scene in front of her: hundreds of young fighters grappling on the mats as judges looked on. “It was surreal,” Davids says. The competition was fierce and by the end of the day, she knew she would be taking a one-way trip back to Kansas.
“You train for 12 years of your life and you get three minutes to demonstrate that to a panel of people who will be deciding if you get to be in the UFC or not,” Davids says. “When I didn’t make it on [the show], I felt that – while I would always be a martial artist – I was done trying to take MMA fights.”
When Davids returned to Kansas, she shifted focus. She began to travel the United States and live on Native American reservations to work with the communities. She has since become a nationally recognized expert on economic and community development programs and initiatives for Native Americans. By 2016, she was one of 16 people selected to participate in the White House Fellowship program.
Davids’s time in Washington DC came during the Obama-Trump transition period. In many ways, it was the spark that kindled her career in politics: “It pushed me a little quicker into something like running for office,” Davids explains.
According to Davids, women are underrepresented in the US federal government. This is particularly evident in Congress, where she believes citizens “need to have the option to vote for qualified women.” Davids is not alone in her thinking — a record-setting 309 women, Republicans and Democrats alike, are running for the US House of Representatives in 2018.
Davids is also part of a record number of Native American women running for office. She is one of four Native American women running for congress, a group that includes Deb Haaland, who won the Democratic nomination in New Mexico’s 1st district.
“The fact that we are in 2018 and we are still seeing all these firsts is mind-boggling to me. When I stop and think about it, it makes me very proud to be a part of this movement that is happening in our country. I feel like all of us are playing a role in this. This unprecedented number of women running for office – myself and a couple of other candidates are native women – makes me very proud.”
Though Davids was working hard in pursuit of her political dreams long before she knew she had the opportunity to make history, she admits it adds a sense of gravitas to what she hopes to achieve, and gives her a feeling that only fighters can relate to.
“It is like being in the third round of a fight and you’ve already pushed as hard as you can in the entire fight and then you hear your coach yell ‘10 seconds’ and you get that last little bump of energy. That is what this feels like. I was already running for congress. I was already trying to make an impact.”
At the sound of the bell, Davids leapt forward and landed a clean left hook that sent her opponent tumbling to the mat. The crowd cheered as Davids mounted her opponent and continued her onslaught. Not long afterwards, the referee separated the fighters and allowed Davids back to her feet. She had won her first professional fight in less than two minutes.
The Kansas native was calm, precise and brutally effective in victory – a perfect start to what could have been a fruitful career. Though it was clear that Davids belonged in the fight game, few realized that the stage she was destined to compete on would be the political arena.
The 37-year-old is one of the Democrats running against Republican Kevin Yoder in Kansas’s third congressional district. Since her campaign took off, Davids has received support from the American political action committee, Emily’s List, which announced it was putting $400,000 of Super Pac moneybehind her. Should Davids win Tuesday’s Democratic primary, she will run against Yoder in the general election on 6 November. As a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, a Native American tribe in Wisconsin, Davids also has the opportunity to make history as the first Native American woman to win a seat in the US Congress.
For Davids, her dual lifestyle as a public servant and a fighter has existed since college. “I had my first [amateur] fight towards the end of 2006 and I finished my bachelor’s degree in May of 2007,” Davids tells the Guardian during a telephone interview.
As a child, Davids was fascinated with martial arts. She was obsessed with Bruce Lee, admiring his work ethic and discipline, and mimicked him by wearing a black belt around the house. However, despite her fascination with Lee, Davids did not begin practicing martial arts until she was a 19-year-old college student.
“I didn’t get to train because I was raised by a single mom,” Davids says, recalling her childhood. “There were three of us and it was just too expensive to pay for me to do martial arts practice.”
Davids started by learning capoeira and karate. She then moved on to taekwondo with a coach who had experience training MMA professionals. After several months together, the coach asked if she would be interested in fighting in a local MMA event. Davids had little interest in participating in what she believed was a barbaric sport. Over time, however, Davids learned more about the sport, as well as the training regimen that fighters go through in preparation for bouts.
By 2006, Davids was prepared to take a leap of faith. She made her amateur debut at the International Sport Combat Federation’s Midwest FightFest, and won in less than a minute. Victory was exhilarating but Davids decided to instead to focus on her studies at Cornell law school. She knew better than to try to make a career out of the sport she had grown to love.
“In terms of career options, I didn’t think about MMA at all,” says Davids. “I don’t know if I really thought it was a career path for many women. For someone like me, even in my prime, it wasn’t something I really considered.”
In February, 2007 — less than a year after Davids made her amateur debut — Gina Carano and Julie Kedzie competed in the first women’s MMA fight to air on live television — a groundbreaking moment for women who sought a career in MMA. Davids and a group of her friends gathered that night to watch the historic fight.
Within a few years, the sport had changed dramatically. The charismatic and supremely talented Ronda Rousey was on her way to becoming one of UFC’s biggest draws, and her sudden rise to stardom led to the creation of a women’s UFC bantamweight division. Suddenly, it seemed as though there were more female fighters getting into the sport than ever before. Even Davids began to ask herself whether her time had finally come.
When the UFC announced a 115lbs women’s edition of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) — a reality show that places fighters in a mansion for several weeks as they work their way through a tournament for a “six-figure UFC contract” — Davids jumped at the opportunity. “I had been so passionate about martial arts for so long that I felt that I wanted to at least try, which is why I took my first pro fight.”
Davids won her first pro fight by submission, but lost the second before signing up for the TUF tryouts in Las Vegas. She was overwhelmed by the scene in front of her: hundreds of young fighters grappling on the mats as judges looked on. “It was surreal,” Davids says. The competition was fierce and by the end of the day, she knew she would be taking a one-way trip back to Kansas.
“You train for 12 years of your life and you get three minutes to demonstrate that to a panel of people who will be deciding if you get to be in the UFC or not,” Davids says. “When I didn’t make it on [the show], I felt that – while I would always be a martial artist – I was done trying to take MMA fights.”
When Davids returned to Kansas, she shifted focus. She began to travel the United States and live on Native American reservations to work with the communities. She has since become a nationally recognized expert on economic and community development programs and initiatives for Native Americans. By 2016, she was one of 16 people selected to participate in the White House Fellowship program.
Davids’s time in Washington DC came during the Obama-Trump transition period. In many ways, it was the spark that kindled her career in politics: “It pushed me a little quicker into something like running for office,” Davids explains.
According to Davids, women are underrepresented in the US federal government. This is particularly evident in Congress, where she believes citizens “need to have the option to vote for qualified women.” Davids is not alone in her thinking — a record-setting 309 women, Republicans and Democrats alike, are running for the US House of Representatives in 2018.
Davids is also part of a record number of Native American women running for office. She is one of four Native American women running for congress, a group that includes Deb Haaland, who won the Democratic nomination in New Mexico’s 1st district.
“The fact that we are in 2018 and we are still seeing all these firsts is mind-boggling to me. When I stop and think about it, it makes me very proud to be a part of this movement that is happening in our country. I feel like all of us are playing a role in this. This unprecedented number of women running for office – myself and a couple of other candidates are native women – makes me very proud.”
Though Davids was working hard in pursuit of her political dreams long before she knew she had the opportunity to make history, she admits it adds a sense of gravitas to what she hopes to achieve, and gives her a feeling that only fighters can relate to.
“It is like being in the third round of a fight and you’ve already pushed as hard as you can in the entire fight and then you hear your coach yell ‘10 seconds’ and you get that last little bump of energy. That is what this feels like. I was already running for congress. I was already trying to make an impact.”
Lance Gross Has ‘No Time to Argue with Fools’ Who Accuse Him of ‘Self-Hate’
By Daryl Nelson - atlanta black star
August 4, 2018
A dark skinned Black man with a light skinned woman usually means the guy chose her because she’s light, and he hates his skin color.
That’s a stereotype that needs to disappear, said actor Lance Gross, after some said he wasn’t proud of his complexion.
It all started when Gross posted a photo of his son Lennon and said he was happy the infant was getting darker. “Little man’s color is comin’ in nicely,” he wrote. “I’m hyped.”
Out of nowhere, some brought up the actor’s wife Rebecca’s light complexion and said he was disappointed that his kids weren’t the same skin tone. This is despite the fact that Gross said he was excited that his child was gaining some color.
Plus, some said he chose Rebecca because of her lighter complexion, which he addressed.
“Let me address this misconception. I absolutely love who Lorin and Alice Gross created,” wrote Lance. “One thing I’ve never desired to be was anyone else. Two things I’m proud of is the ability to smile through any situation and the rich melanin that layers my body. For my daughter or son to share that blessing makes me overjoyed. Miss me with the self-hate, ‘cause those opinions and assumptions are invalid.”
Gross also slammed those who assume their opinion will have anything to do with how he views himself, his spouse or his children. He then wrote about colorism and how a lot of folks don’t realize just how harmful it is.
“I won’t argue with fools, but I’m down to inform the misinformed to a certain extent before I stop giving a sh–,” wrote Gross. “I am a proud Black man that loves my African American wife and that will remain. The simple minds of others don’t hold me when I need to be held, assist in raising my kids and maintain a loving relationship and household.”
The actor’s post received nearly 50,000 likes and over 3,000 comments in just 24 hours, and many backed what he wrote.
“Some of y’all are ridiculous. Accusing him of colorism but then talking down about his wife,” one person commented. “Hypocrites beat it. Here we go again with this acceptable idea of Black. Foh with that.”
“I didn’t get that Lance wished his son was lighter from the caption,” wrote someone else. “He literally said he was hyped about his child’s color coming in. WTF were they reading? Some people are triggered whether one speaks negatively or positively about race.”
That’s a stereotype that needs to disappear, said actor Lance Gross, after some said he wasn’t proud of his complexion.
It all started when Gross posted a photo of his son Lennon and said he was happy the infant was getting darker. “Little man’s color is comin’ in nicely,” he wrote. “I’m hyped.”
Out of nowhere, some brought up the actor’s wife Rebecca’s light complexion and said he was disappointed that his kids weren’t the same skin tone. This is despite the fact that Gross said he was excited that his child was gaining some color.
Plus, some said he chose Rebecca because of her lighter complexion, which he addressed.
“Let me address this misconception. I absolutely love who Lorin and Alice Gross created,” wrote Lance. “One thing I’ve never desired to be was anyone else. Two things I’m proud of is the ability to smile through any situation and the rich melanin that layers my body. For my daughter or son to share that blessing makes me overjoyed. Miss me with the self-hate, ‘cause those opinions and assumptions are invalid.”
Gross also slammed those who assume their opinion will have anything to do with how he views himself, his spouse or his children. He then wrote about colorism and how a lot of folks don’t realize just how harmful it is.
“I won’t argue with fools, but I’m down to inform the misinformed to a certain extent before I stop giving a sh–,” wrote Gross. “I am a proud Black man that loves my African American wife and that will remain. The simple minds of others don’t hold me when I need to be held, assist in raising my kids and maintain a loving relationship and household.”
The actor’s post received nearly 50,000 likes and over 3,000 comments in just 24 hours, and many backed what he wrote.
“Some of y’all are ridiculous. Accusing him of colorism but then talking down about his wife,” one person commented. “Hypocrites beat it. Here we go again with this acceptable idea of Black. Foh with that.”
“I didn’t get that Lance wished his son was lighter from the caption,” wrote someone else. “He literally said he was hyped about his child’s color coming in. WTF were they reading? Some people are triggered whether one speaks negatively or positively about race.”
Spike Lee Says Hollywood Loves To Dehumanize Black Folks
By Daryl Nelson - atlanta black star
August 3, 2018
It’s been a while since a Spike Lee film received a bunch of praise, but that’s exactly what’s happening with his movie “BlacKkKlansman.”
It stars John David Washington, Denzel’s Washington’s son, who plays Ron Stallworth, the first Black officer in the Colorado Springs Police Department. In the ‘1970s, Stallworth infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan by phone and sent a fellow white officer to meet with them in person.
Lee premiered “BlacKkKlansman” at Cannes Film Festival in May, and it received a six-minute standing ovation when it was over.
The script was sent to him by Jordan Peele, who helped produce the movie through Focus Features, the first major studio that Lee has worked with in 10 years.
In the past, the veteran filmmaker has been critical of Hollywood studios and said there aren’t enough Black people in decision making positions. In fact, one time he said it’s easier for a Black man to become president of the United States than it is to be the head of a studio.
Now, in a new interview with GQ, Lee blasted Hollywood again and said its executives like to create false narratives about minority groups.
“It’s growing up and watching motherfucking cowboy movies where Native Americans look like savages,” he said. “I’m gonna say what I’ve said before: These bullshit John Ford, John Wayne movies are lies. They’re lying on the humanity of Native Americans.”
“That’s been the history,” Lee added. “Not the whole history but a large part of the history of Hollywood — to dehumanize people, whether we’re Black, Hispanic, gay, whatever.”
Back in May, at a press conference for “BlacKkKlansman,” Lee blasted Donald Trump, which he did again and once more, he didn’t pull any punches.
“Agent Orange, wake up. Wake the fuck up,” he said. “He’s a man of hate, violence and can’t be trusted to make moral decisions. We can’t be silent anymore. He’s on the wrong side of history, and we are on the right side of history with this film.”
“BlacKkKlansman” opens up nationwide on August 10.
It stars John David Washington, Denzel’s Washington’s son, who plays Ron Stallworth, the first Black officer in the Colorado Springs Police Department. In the ‘1970s, Stallworth infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan by phone and sent a fellow white officer to meet with them in person.
Lee premiered “BlacKkKlansman” at Cannes Film Festival in May, and it received a six-minute standing ovation when it was over.
The script was sent to him by Jordan Peele, who helped produce the movie through Focus Features, the first major studio that Lee has worked with in 10 years.
In the past, the veteran filmmaker has been critical of Hollywood studios and said there aren’t enough Black people in decision making positions. In fact, one time he said it’s easier for a Black man to become president of the United States than it is to be the head of a studio.
Now, in a new interview with GQ, Lee blasted Hollywood again and said its executives like to create false narratives about minority groups.
“It’s growing up and watching motherfucking cowboy movies where Native Americans look like savages,” he said. “I’m gonna say what I’ve said before: These bullshit John Ford, John Wayne movies are lies. They’re lying on the humanity of Native Americans.”
“That’s been the history,” Lee added. “Not the whole history but a large part of the history of Hollywood — to dehumanize people, whether we’re Black, Hispanic, gay, whatever.”
Back in May, at a press conference for “BlacKkKlansman,” Lee blasted Donald Trump, which he did again and once more, he didn’t pull any punches.
“Agent Orange, wake up. Wake the fuck up,” he said. “He’s a man of hate, violence and can’t be trusted to make moral decisions. We can’t be silent anymore. He’s on the wrong side of history, and we are on the right side of history with this film.”
“BlacKkKlansman” opens up nationwide on August 10.
LeBron James blasts Trump’s history of racism: ‘I would never sit across from him’
Sarah K. Burris - raw story
30 JUL 2018 AT 22:43 ET
NBA player LeBron James told CNN’s Don Lemon Monday that athletics were once something that brought people together. Today, however, he said that the president is using it to divide Americans.
James specifically brought up the many sports stars that are working on community projects giving back, yet President Donald Trump and his allies attack them.
“Whenever there’s something, like he’s in trouble, he can’t wiggle his way out of something, he’ll bring up the National Anthem and kneeling or standing,” Lemon observed. “Do you think he uses black athletes as a scapegoat?”
James said Trump does it more often than not.
“I believe he uses anything that’s popular to try to negate people from thinking act the positive things they can be doing and try to get our minds to not be as sharp as possible right then,” James explained. “Look at Kaepernick, who was protesting something he believed in and he did in the calmest way possible. Very respectful. He did his due diligence. Everyone knew why he did it.”
He noted that everyone “felt” Trump’s words after Charlottesville.
“It didn’t matter what color you are to feel that tension, to feel like our great country, you know,” James continued. “That we all wake up every day in the land of the free as we believe with great opportunity to be even more than what people even expect you to become for that to happen, you just felt like that was — that was kind of the tipping point.”
When Lemon asked if he would ever run for office, James said he wasn’t interested in doing it. Lemon asked if he would run against Trump if there was no one else who would and James agreed.
“Well, in that case, I may,” he said. “If they had no one, I mean, I believe there’s some people out there, I hope. Let’s see first. Let’s see first.”
But when it came to sitting down with the president, James wasn’t interested.
“I would never sit across from him,” James said. “I’d sit across from Barack, though.”
James specifically brought up the many sports stars that are working on community projects giving back, yet President Donald Trump and his allies attack them.
“Whenever there’s something, like he’s in trouble, he can’t wiggle his way out of something, he’ll bring up the National Anthem and kneeling or standing,” Lemon observed. “Do you think he uses black athletes as a scapegoat?”
James said Trump does it more often than not.
“I believe he uses anything that’s popular to try to negate people from thinking act the positive things they can be doing and try to get our minds to not be as sharp as possible right then,” James explained. “Look at Kaepernick, who was protesting something he believed in and he did in the calmest way possible. Very respectful. He did his due diligence. Everyone knew why he did it.”
He noted that everyone “felt” Trump’s words after Charlottesville.
“It didn’t matter what color you are to feel that tension, to feel like our great country, you know,” James continued. “That we all wake up every day in the land of the free as we believe with great opportunity to be even more than what people even expect you to become for that to happen, you just felt like that was — that was kind of the tipping point.”
When Lemon asked if he would ever run for office, James said he wasn’t interested in doing it. Lemon asked if he would run against Trump if there was no one else who would and James agreed.
“Well, in that case, I may,” he said. “If they had no one, I mean, I believe there’s some people out there, I hope. Let’s see first. Let’s see first.”
But when it came to sitting down with the president, James wasn’t interested.
“I would never sit across from him,” James said. “I’d sit across from Barack, though.”
Hiring of former Trump aide at UVa prompts 2 historians to quit
By BENJAMIN WERMUND - politico
07/30/2018 09:14 AM EDT
Two prominent historians are leaving a public policy center at the University of Virginia in protest over its plan to hire a former aide to President Donald Trump, calling the aide, Marc Short, "complicit in the erosion of our civic discourse."
William I. Hitchcock and Melvyn P. Leffler announced Monday they are resigning from the Miller Center, a wing of the university focused on presidential history and public policy, over its hiring of Short, Trump’s former legislative affairs director. They remain tenured faculty in the university's history department.
In their resignation letter, the historians blasted Short for not distancing himself from Trump's response to the August 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., which resulted in the death of a 32-year-old woman and in which Trump famously blamed "both sides."
"By not speaking out at the time, by not emphasizing the threats to human decency posed by the public display of Nazi symbols and racist diatribes in our own neighborhood, Mr. Short was complicit in the erosion of our civic discourse and showed an appalling indifference to the civility of our own city and university," they wrote.
It's the latest fallout over the center's decision to appoint Short to a one-year fellowship. Professors, alumni and others have strongly objected, calling it "unconscionable" as the one-year anniversary of the violent rally in Charlottesville approaches. An online petition with thousands of signatures blasts the school for hiring Short, saying "the university should not serve as a waystation for high-level members of an administration that has directly harmed our community."
Leffler is a former dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at UVa. Hitchcock is a New York Times bestselling historian and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
In their joint resignation letter, the two wrote that the decision to hire Short was made "without adequate faculty discussion, deliberation and a vote" and "violates the values of the Center," which describes itself as a “nonpartisan affiliate" of UVa.
"Short has been a partisan activist during his entire professional career," they wrote. "He has associated himself with people and institutions who disregard, circumvent and even violate the norms and laws that are fundamental to civil discourse and democratic politics."
William Antholis, director and CEO of the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, said in a statement that “the loss of any Miller Center faculty or staff member saddens me."
"As much as I respect the depth of feelings on this issue, the Miller Center’s core focus on the presidency, our commitment to nonpartisanship and our demonstrated ability to promote civil discourse must remain our principal responsibility, especially in trying times,” Antholis said.
Antholis defended the hire last week, saying Short "brings a missing critical voice — one that represents members of Congress and the Republican Party who continue to support the president in large numbers."
But the historians said the Short hire does not fit with the Miller Center's objectives.
"By associating himself with an administration that shows no respect for truth, he has contributed to the erosion of civil discourse and democratic norms that are essential to democratic governance and that are central to the mission of the Miller Center."
Short did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but he told POLITICO earlier this month that he is "sympathetic to the pain in the community" and that "I think we could have done a better job expressing sympathy for the victims and outrage at those who perpetrated this evil."
He also referred at the time to an Aug. 14 statement in which he said the president was "unambiguous."
In that statement, Trump said, "racism is evil, and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans."
William I. Hitchcock and Melvyn P. Leffler announced Monday they are resigning from the Miller Center, a wing of the university focused on presidential history and public policy, over its hiring of Short, Trump’s former legislative affairs director. They remain tenured faculty in the university's history department.
In their resignation letter, the historians blasted Short for not distancing himself from Trump's response to the August 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., which resulted in the death of a 32-year-old woman and in which Trump famously blamed "both sides."
"By not speaking out at the time, by not emphasizing the threats to human decency posed by the public display of Nazi symbols and racist diatribes in our own neighborhood, Mr. Short was complicit in the erosion of our civic discourse and showed an appalling indifference to the civility of our own city and university," they wrote.
It's the latest fallout over the center's decision to appoint Short to a one-year fellowship. Professors, alumni and others have strongly objected, calling it "unconscionable" as the one-year anniversary of the violent rally in Charlottesville approaches. An online petition with thousands of signatures blasts the school for hiring Short, saying "the university should not serve as a waystation for high-level members of an administration that has directly harmed our community."
Leffler is a former dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at UVa. Hitchcock is a New York Times bestselling historian and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
In their joint resignation letter, the two wrote that the decision to hire Short was made "without adequate faculty discussion, deliberation and a vote" and "violates the values of the Center," which describes itself as a “nonpartisan affiliate" of UVa.
"Short has been a partisan activist during his entire professional career," they wrote. "He has associated himself with people and institutions who disregard, circumvent and even violate the norms and laws that are fundamental to civil discourse and democratic politics."
William Antholis, director and CEO of the University of Virginia’s Miller Center, said in a statement that “the loss of any Miller Center faculty or staff member saddens me."
"As much as I respect the depth of feelings on this issue, the Miller Center’s core focus on the presidency, our commitment to nonpartisanship and our demonstrated ability to promote civil discourse must remain our principal responsibility, especially in trying times,” Antholis said.
Antholis defended the hire last week, saying Short "brings a missing critical voice — one that represents members of Congress and the Republican Party who continue to support the president in large numbers."
But the historians said the Short hire does not fit with the Miller Center's objectives.
"By associating himself with an administration that shows no respect for truth, he has contributed to the erosion of civil discourse and democratic norms that are essential to democratic governance and that are central to the mission of the Miller Center."
Short did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but he told POLITICO earlier this month that he is "sympathetic to the pain in the community" and that "I think we could have done a better job expressing sympathy for the victims and outrage at those who perpetrated this evil."
He also referred at the time to an Aug. 14 statement in which he said the president was "unambiguous."
In that statement, Trump said, "racism is evil, and those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans."
This Texas Man Has Been Behind Bars for 4 Years As He Continues to Await Trial in War on Drugs
It remains to be seen how soon Marvin Guy, who was never granted bail, will go to trial.
By Alex Henderson / AlterNet
July 27, 2018, 7:29 AM GMT
After four years in jail, Marvin Louis Guy—the Kileen, Texas man who is facing capital murder charges for killing a narcotics officer during a no-knock drug raid in 2014—has yet to go to trial. But it isn’t because Guy’s main attorney, Carlos Garcia, hasn’t been trying to pin down a trial date. Last week on July 19—when Guy, Garcia and the prosecution met with Judge John Gauntt in a courtroom in Bell County, Texas for a status hearing—Garcia stressed that he was ready to go to trial.
“We’re ready,” Garcia told Judge Gauntt. “We’ve been ready. We’re ready to go. Give us a date.” But no trial date was set, although another status hearing has been set for Thursday, August 9.
Guy is facing one count of capital murder and three counts of attempted murder for an incident that occurred on the morning of May 9, 2014, when he shot and killed narcotics officer Charles Dinwiddie. The prosecutors in the case include Bell County District Attorney Henry Garza and Bell County Assistant District Attorney Fred Burns, who are seeking the death penalty. And to those who believe that Guy never should have been arrested in the first place—including journalist Radley Balko—the case epitomizes everything that is wrong with the War on Drugs.
Guy doesn’t deny that he shot and killed Dinwiddie, but his version of the events differs wildly from how the prosecution sees it. When a SWAT team raided Guy’s home in Kileen at around 5:30 a.m., they were operating on a tip from an informant who had claimed that he was selling bags of cocaine. Guy, who grabbed his gun and opened fire during the no-knock raid, has asserted that he had no idea the men invading his home were law enforcement officers—he thought he was being robbed. And the evidence strongly suggests that Guy did, in fact, believe he was acting in self-defense.
No bags of cocaine were found in Guy’s home. Nor were any other drugs—not even marijuana. The only thing officers found was a glass pipe and a grinder, which indicates that Guy was, at worst, a recreational drug user and not a drug dealer. And that’s exactly how Balko sees it.
After Guy’s arrest, Balko—who has been a vehement critic of the War on Drugs and wrote the 2013 book “Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces”—asserted that between his arrest and the May 9, 2014 SWAT raid, Guy was getting a very raw deal.
In a May 16, 2014 article for the Washington Post, Balko asserted, “The fact that the police didn’t find any drugs in the house suggests that Marvin Louis Guy didn’t know he was shooting at cops. Drug dealer or no, unless he had a death wish, it’s unlikely that a guy would knowingly fire at police officers when he had nothing in the house that was particularly incriminating.”
A similar incident took place in Burleson County, Texas on December 19, 2013, but with a very different outcome in court. That day, a SWAT team carried out a no-knock raid on the home of Henry Magee after an informant claimed that he had a large marijuana-growing operation. Magee shot and killed one of the officers, Adam Sowders—and like Guy, Magee asserted that he thought he was being robbed, had no idea he was shooting at law enforcement officers and believed he was acting in self-defense.
Magee was facing the possibility of capital murder charges, but a grand jury decided that he legitimately believed he was acting in self-defense—and Magee was not indicted. The Magee case, in fact, was mentioned in 2014 in a Change.org petition asking prosecutors to “please drop the capital murder and attempted murder charges against Marvin Louis Guy.” The petition pointed out that Guy thought he “was defending his wife and home, just as Magee believed he was doing.”
There is an important difference between the Magee and Guy cases, however: Magee is white, while Guy is African-American. And given the long history of abuses that people of color have suffered with Texas’ judicial system, it’s hard not to notice that in two very similar cases, the white man walked free while the African-American man has spent four years in jail awaiting trial and still might end up on Texas’ death row.
Guy and Magee are hardly the only Americans who have faced the possibility of prison or the death penalty after shooting narcotics officers during militarized no-knock drug raids. There have been many others, from Ryan Frederick in Virginia to Christina Korbe in Pennsylvania to Cory Maye in Mississippi. Frederick, Korbe and Maye all maintained that they believed they were acting in self-defense, but that didn’t keep them out of prison.
Korbe was sentenced to 16 years in prison after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter and weapons charges—a plea bargain she decided was preferable to the life-without-parole sentence prosecutors originally wanted—while Frederick received a ten-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter. Balko believes Frederick’s sentence was totally unjust; in a March 18, 2008 article for Reason, he commented, “Ryan Frederick is merely the latest citizen to be put in the impossible position of being awakened from sleep, then having to determine in a matter of seconds if the men breaking into his home are police or criminal intruders.”
Maye—who, like Guy, is African-American—actually went to Death Row because of an incident that occurred in Prentiss, Mississippi around 11 p.m. on December 26, 2001, when narcotics officers targeted two sides of a duplex for a no-knock drug raid. Maye lived on one side of the duplex, while his neighbor, Jamie Smith, lived on the other side; Smith was the one suspected of selling large amounts of marijuana, but both sides of the duplex were raided—and Maye, believing he was being robbed, fired three shots.
Officer Ron W. Jones was shot and killed, and even though no drugs were found on Maye’s side of the duplex, Maye was convicted of first-degree murder by a predominantly white jury and sentenced to death by lethal injection. But in 2010, the Mississippi Supreme Court decided that Maye was entitled to a new trial; Maye pled guilty to manslaughter, was given a new sentence of ten years in prison with time already served, and released from prison on July 18, 2011.
But Maye never should have been prosecuted in the first place—nor should Korbe or Frederick have been. All of them were railroaded just as Texas prosecutors are still trying to railroad Guy now. And when it comes to militarized no-knock drug raids, there is an appalling double standard at work: narcotics officers who kill, injure or maim innocent people are seldom prosecuted when they screw up, but anyone who shoots an officer during those raids is likely to face murder or manslaughter charges.
When it comes to the War on Drugs, police often act with impunity, while the burden of proof is firmly on those they harm. The examples of narcotics officers screwing up and raiding the wrong home are numerous, and journalist Abby Martin (formerly of RT America and now hosting “The Empire Files”) put it perfectly when she asserted that the War on Drugs operates in a “two-tiered justice system that shelters police from accountability time and again.”
Take, for example, the 2014 case in which a SWAT team in Habersham County, Georgia conducted a botched drug raid on the home of Alecia Phonesavanh and severely insured her toddler, Bounkham “Bou Bou” Phonesavanh, by setting off a flash-bang grenade. No drugs were found in the home, the person they were looking for wasn’t even living there, and the grenade blew a hole in the toddler’s face and chest. But despite all that, a grand jury decided not to charge any of the officers.
Narcotics officers who recklessly throw a grenade in a toddler’s crime are given every benefit of the doubt, while Guy must fight a long, had battle to avoid death by lethal injection.
It remains to be seen how soon Guy, who was never granted bail, will go to trial. But even if all charges against him were dropped today, he has already, in effect, served a four-year sentence. And like so many Americans caught up in the War on Drugs, Marvin Louis Guy knows all too well what it means to be guilty until proven innocent.
“We’re ready,” Garcia told Judge Gauntt. “We’ve been ready. We’re ready to go. Give us a date.” But no trial date was set, although another status hearing has been set for Thursday, August 9.
Guy is facing one count of capital murder and three counts of attempted murder for an incident that occurred on the morning of May 9, 2014, when he shot and killed narcotics officer Charles Dinwiddie. The prosecutors in the case include Bell County District Attorney Henry Garza and Bell County Assistant District Attorney Fred Burns, who are seeking the death penalty. And to those who believe that Guy never should have been arrested in the first place—including journalist Radley Balko—the case epitomizes everything that is wrong with the War on Drugs.
Guy doesn’t deny that he shot and killed Dinwiddie, but his version of the events differs wildly from how the prosecution sees it. When a SWAT team raided Guy’s home in Kileen at around 5:30 a.m., they were operating on a tip from an informant who had claimed that he was selling bags of cocaine. Guy, who grabbed his gun and opened fire during the no-knock raid, has asserted that he had no idea the men invading his home were law enforcement officers—he thought he was being robbed. And the evidence strongly suggests that Guy did, in fact, believe he was acting in self-defense.
No bags of cocaine were found in Guy’s home. Nor were any other drugs—not even marijuana. The only thing officers found was a glass pipe and a grinder, which indicates that Guy was, at worst, a recreational drug user and not a drug dealer. And that’s exactly how Balko sees it.
After Guy’s arrest, Balko—who has been a vehement critic of the War on Drugs and wrote the 2013 book “Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces”—asserted that between his arrest and the May 9, 2014 SWAT raid, Guy was getting a very raw deal.
In a May 16, 2014 article for the Washington Post, Balko asserted, “The fact that the police didn’t find any drugs in the house suggests that Marvin Louis Guy didn’t know he was shooting at cops. Drug dealer or no, unless he had a death wish, it’s unlikely that a guy would knowingly fire at police officers when he had nothing in the house that was particularly incriminating.”
A similar incident took place in Burleson County, Texas on December 19, 2013, but with a very different outcome in court. That day, a SWAT team carried out a no-knock raid on the home of Henry Magee after an informant claimed that he had a large marijuana-growing operation. Magee shot and killed one of the officers, Adam Sowders—and like Guy, Magee asserted that he thought he was being robbed, had no idea he was shooting at law enforcement officers and believed he was acting in self-defense.
Magee was facing the possibility of capital murder charges, but a grand jury decided that he legitimately believed he was acting in self-defense—and Magee was not indicted. The Magee case, in fact, was mentioned in 2014 in a Change.org petition asking prosecutors to “please drop the capital murder and attempted murder charges against Marvin Louis Guy.” The petition pointed out that Guy thought he “was defending his wife and home, just as Magee believed he was doing.”
There is an important difference between the Magee and Guy cases, however: Magee is white, while Guy is African-American. And given the long history of abuses that people of color have suffered with Texas’ judicial system, it’s hard not to notice that in two very similar cases, the white man walked free while the African-American man has spent four years in jail awaiting trial and still might end up on Texas’ death row.
Guy and Magee are hardly the only Americans who have faced the possibility of prison or the death penalty after shooting narcotics officers during militarized no-knock drug raids. There have been many others, from Ryan Frederick in Virginia to Christina Korbe in Pennsylvania to Cory Maye in Mississippi. Frederick, Korbe and Maye all maintained that they believed they were acting in self-defense, but that didn’t keep them out of prison.
Korbe was sentenced to 16 years in prison after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter and weapons charges—a plea bargain she decided was preferable to the life-without-parole sentence prosecutors originally wanted—while Frederick received a ten-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter. Balko believes Frederick’s sentence was totally unjust; in a March 18, 2008 article for Reason, he commented, “Ryan Frederick is merely the latest citizen to be put in the impossible position of being awakened from sleep, then having to determine in a matter of seconds if the men breaking into his home are police or criminal intruders.”
Maye—who, like Guy, is African-American—actually went to Death Row because of an incident that occurred in Prentiss, Mississippi around 11 p.m. on December 26, 2001, when narcotics officers targeted two sides of a duplex for a no-knock drug raid. Maye lived on one side of the duplex, while his neighbor, Jamie Smith, lived on the other side; Smith was the one suspected of selling large amounts of marijuana, but both sides of the duplex were raided—and Maye, believing he was being robbed, fired three shots.
Officer Ron W. Jones was shot and killed, and even though no drugs were found on Maye’s side of the duplex, Maye was convicted of first-degree murder by a predominantly white jury and sentenced to death by lethal injection. But in 2010, the Mississippi Supreme Court decided that Maye was entitled to a new trial; Maye pled guilty to manslaughter, was given a new sentence of ten years in prison with time already served, and released from prison on July 18, 2011.
But Maye never should have been prosecuted in the first place—nor should Korbe or Frederick have been. All of them were railroaded just as Texas prosecutors are still trying to railroad Guy now. And when it comes to militarized no-knock drug raids, there is an appalling double standard at work: narcotics officers who kill, injure or maim innocent people are seldom prosecuted when they screw up, but anyone who shoots an officer during those raids is likely to face murder or manslaughter charges.
When it comes to the War on Drugs, police often act with impunity, while the burden of proof is firmly on those they harm. The examples of narcotics officers screwing up and raiding the wrong home are numerous, and journalist Abby Martin (formerly of RT America and now hosting “The Empire Files”) put it perfectly when she asserted that the War on Drugs operates in a “two-tiered justice system that shelters police from accountability time and again.”
Take, for example, the 2014 case in which a SWAT team in Habersham County, Georgia conducted a botched drug raid on the home of Alecia Phonesavanh and severely insured her toddler, Bounkham “Bou Bou” Phonesavanh, by setting off a flash-bang grenade. No drugs were found in the home, the person they were looking for wasn’t even living there, and the grenade blew a hole in the toddler’s face and chest. But despite all that, a grand jury decided not to charge any of the officers.
Narcotics officers who recklessly throw a grenade in a toddler’s crime are given every benefit of the doubt, while Guy must fight a long, had battle to avoid death by lethal injection.
It remains to be seen how soon Guy, who was never granted bail, will go to trial. But even if all charges against him were dropped today, he has already, in effect, served a four-year sentence. And like so many Americans caught up in the War on Drugs, Marvin Louis Guy knows all too well what it means to be guilty until proven innocent.
Michigan Teen Disqualified from Receiving College Scholarship After Family Becomes Homeless
By Tanasia Kenney - atlanta black star
July 27, 2018
Zaviona Woodruff lived in the Kalamazzo school district until 2016, when her family became homeless and was forced to move. (FOX 17 / video screenshot)
A Michigan teen had her sights set on college, but a technicality on a state-funded scholarship she was sure she would win has put her plans in jeopardy.
Zaviona Woodruff, 18, graduated with high honors and was an all-star on the bowling team. She delivered the address at graduation and “tried to do as much as I could to make myself look like a great student,” she told FOX 17 Michigan.
Woodruff received crushing news the week before graduation, however, news that would leave her plans of attending college hanging it the balance. It turned out she wouldn’t be receiving the Kalamazoo Promise, a scholarship guaranteed to any student who remains in the Kalamazoo Public School System from kindergarten until 12th grade.
It’s been a week since Woodruff visited the Oakland University campus and “fell in love.” The recent grad said she initially wanted to study criminal justice but now wants to major in mechanical engineering. She even took an aviation tech class in high school, studying different parts of an airplane, the station reported.
Her plans of continuing her education are now literally up in the air after learning she wouldn’t receive the scholarship because, for a brief time, she didn’t live in KPS district.
“My whole life, I’m like, okay, I get the Promise, I’m good,” Woodruff said. “[To] just have that chair ripped from under me, like last second, [in] May, last second … it’s just really really hard.”
Before 2016, Woodruff did reside in the school district. Her family fell on hard times, however, and became homeless.
“We were in a shelter for a good three, maybe six months,” she explained. “We were all in the same room: three girls and a dad.”
Woodruff’s father, Cecil, eventually moved his family to a nearby apartment complex, which he thought was still in the KPS district. He was assured that a KPS school bus would arrive every morning to pick up his girls and take them to school. The single father soon learned they actually lived in Comstock Township, across the street from the KPS district line. KPS had offered the bus service because the family was displaced.
“ … I had to fill out forms to request that they be allowed to go to the Kalamazoo Schools,” Cecil told the station. “With that, I had to transport them myself. For the last year and half, I drove them back and forth every day for the Kalamazoo Promise.”
His daughter was still ineligible, however.
After learning she wouldn’t get the scholarship, Woodruff penned an appeal to the scholarship committee.
“My dad is a single parent,” she remembered writing in the letter. “ … He doesn’t have a steady job all the time. And he’s trying to do things to make ends meet to even just keep a house, a roof over our head, food on the table.”
Her teachers, current and former, also wrote letters to the committee, asking them to reconsider. In an interview with FOX 17, Kalamazoo Promise Executive Director Bob Jorth said the committee looks at each appeal on a case-by-case basis, examining the situation as a whole before making a decision.
“They work really really hard to find a way to give the awards,” Jorth said of the committee, which is comprised of community members. “We also try to help students who aren’t successful with the appeal understand there are other options for financing their education, you know, help them identify other scholarship opportunities.”
Despite her efforts, Woodruff was still denied the scholarship. She’s since taken on two jobs and still plans on attending OU in the fall.
In the meantime, a GoFundMe campaign was launched to help the teen cover her college expenses. So far, the page has collected over $6,000 in donations.
Zaviona Woodruff, 18, graduated with high honors and was an all-star on the bowling team. She delivered the address at graduation and “tried to do as much as I could to make myself look like a great student,” she told FOX 17 Michigan.
Woodruff received crushing news the week before graduation, however, news that would leave her plans of attending college hanging it the balance. It turned out she wouldn’t be receiving the Kalamazoo Promise, a scholarship guaranteed to any student who remains in the Kalamazoo Public School System from kindergarten until 12th grade.
It’s been a week since Woodruff visited the Oakland University campus and “fell in love.” The recent grad said she initially wanted to study criminal justice but now wants to major in mechanical engineering. She even took an aviation tech class in high school, studying different parts of an airplane, the station reported.
Her plans of continuing her education are now literally up in the air after learning she wouldn’t receive the scholarship because, for a brief time, she didn’t live in KPS district.
“My whole life, I’m like, okay, I get the Promise, I’m good,” Woodruff said. “[To] just have that chair ripped from under me, like last second, [in] May, last second … it’s just really really hard.”
Before 2016, Woodruff did reside in the school district. Her family fell on hard times, however, and became homeless.
“We were in a shelter for a good three, maybe six months,” she explained. “We were all in the same room: three girls and a dad.”
Woodruff’s father, Cecil, eventually moved his family to a nearby apartment complex, which he thought was still in the KPS district. He was assured that a KPS school bus would arrive every morning to pick up his girls and take them to school. The single father soon learned they actually lived in Comstock Township, across the street from the KPS district line. KPS had offered the bus service because the family was displaced.
“ … I had to fill out forms to request that they be allowed to go to the Kalamazoo Schools,” Cecil told the station. “With that, I had to transport them myself. For the last year and half, I drove them back and forth every day for the Kalamazoo Promise.”
His daughter was still ineligible, however.
After learning she wouldn’t get the scholarship, Woodruff penned an appeal to the scholarship committee.
“My dad is a single parent,” she remembered writing in the letter. “ … He doesn’t have a steady job all the time. And he’s trying to do things to make ends meet to even just keep a house, a roof over our head, food on the table.”
Her teachers, current and former, also wrote letters to the committee, asking them to reconsider. In an interview with FOX 17, Kalamazoo Promise Executive Director Bob Jorth said the committee looks at each appeal on a case-by-case basis, examining the situation as a whole before making a decision.
“They work really really hard to find a way to give the awards,” Jorth said of the committee, which is comprised of community members. “We also try to help students who aren’t successful with the appeal understand there are other options for financing their education, you know, help them identify other scholarship opportunities.”
Despite her efforts, Woodruff was still denied the scholarship. She’s since taken on two jobs and still plans on attending OU in the fall.
In the meantime, a GoFundMe campaign was launched to help the teen cover her college expenses. So far, the page has collected over $6,000 in donations.
Reasons why I will NEVER, EVER forgive Trump voters
Coventina
From Demo. Underground: All these things were done BEFORE the election, so don't try to tell me that Trump voters didn't know EXACTLY what they were voting for:
Calling Mexicans rapists
Shaming women for having menstrual cycles
Saying John McCain is not a hero for surviving torture
Signing up a white nationalist as a delegate
Saying he is against the First Amendment
Refusing to condemn the KKK
Mocking a disabled reporter
Praising Saddam Hussein
Praising Vladimir Putin
Re-tweeting white nationalists
Tweeting that most murders of white people are done by African Americans
Mocking women's personal appearance
Sexualizing his daughter
Lying about American Muslims celebrating on 9/11
"Two Corinthians"
Talking about his penis during a national debate
Saying a judge was partial due to his ethnic heritage
Supporting the Obama "birther" lies
Threatening to end the free press
Defrauding students of "Trump University"
Not releasing his taxes
Saying pumping breast milk is "disgusting"
Asking Russia to hack the United States
Of course there is so much more, but this hits the high (low) lights for me.
Calling Mexicans rapists
Shaming women for having menstrual cycles
Saying John McCain is not a hero for surviving torture
Signing up a white nationalist as a delegate
Saying he is against the First Amendment
Refusing to condemn the KKK
Mocking a disabled reporter
Praising Saddam Hussein
Praising Vladimir Putin
Re-tweeting white nationalists
Tweeting that most murders of white people are done by African Americans
Mocking women's personal appearance
Sexualizing his daughter
Lying about American Muslims celebrating on 9/11
"Two Corinthians"
Talking about his penis during a national debate
Saying a judge was partial due to his ethnic heritage
Supporting the Obama "birther" lies
Threatening to end the free press
Defrauding students of "Trump University"
Not releasing his taxes
Saying pumping breast milk is "disgusting"
Asking Russia to hack the United States
Of course there is so much more, but this hits the high (low) lights for me.
When idiots say "both parties are the same"
SHRED
From Demo Underground: Here's a partial list.
Things that Democrats would not be doing:
Escalating towards nuclear war with NK.
Pulling out of Paris Climate Agreement.
Reducing National Monuments.
Defunding renewable energy.
Defunding CHIP.
Not helping Puerto Rico sufficiently.
Threatening and deporting DACA.
Building a wall on the southern border.
Attacking our allies and praising Russia.
Trying to revive the war on cannabis.
Backing expansion of private prisons.
Sabotaging the ACA.
Pushing an obscene tax bill which trigger cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
Preparing to decimate the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau.
A State Department in shambles.
Privatization schemes against public education.
Expanding the private prison system.
Attacking the BLM movement.
Praising White Supremacists.
Renewing attacks on our LGBT brothers and sisters.
Destroying Net Neutrality.
To name a few for those idiots who think "both parties are the same".
I've shutdown fools online with this list.
Things that Democrats would not be doing:
Escalating towards nuclear war with NK.
Pulling out of Paris Climate Agreement.
Reducing National Monuments.
Defunding renewable energy.
Defunding CHIP.
Not helping Puerto Rico sufficiently.
Threatening and deporting DACA.
Building a wall on the southern border.
Attacking our allies and praising Russia.
Trying to revive the war on cannabis.
Backing expansion of private prisons.
Sabotaging the ACA.
Pushing an obscene tax bill which trigger cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
Preparing to decimate the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau.
A State Department in shambles.
Privatization schemes against public education.
Expanding the private prison system.
Attacking the BLM movement.
Praising White Supremacists.
Renewing attacks on our LGBT brothers and sisters.
Destroying Net Neutrality.
To name a few for those idiots who think "both parties are the same".
I've shutdown fools online with this list.
stupid is as stupid does!!!
Please Stop Giving Trump Supporters a Stupidity Pass
babylonsister
From Demo Underground: Ignorance is not a compelling argument.
snip//
It’s time we stopped giving adult human beings the benefit of the doubt, simply because we think they’re not smart enough not to be fooled by religious shysters, fake news peddlers, and political snake oil salesmen. If that is true, then they’re also not smart or mentally available enough to be presented with objective data or compelling argument and to filter them responsibility. They are practically speaking, unreachable with rational measures.
I’m tired of having to treat people like children, when they aren’t capable or willing to see what even a child can see, what my children can see. They know hatred and bullying without needing to read a think piece or do online research or unpack layers of religion and history.
I’m over justifying bigotry and racism and the horrible stuff happening in the country, and giving people who perpetuate it a pass because they supposedly don’t realize they’re supporting a monster,—when most of the watching world seems to get it.
In a time when information is available at our fingertips and when conversation and study and exploration are limitless, I’ve through excusing adult men and women for not being able to make a decision that is based in reality, simply because they’re in some hateful, self-righteous, nationalistic bubble. That’s their fault, not ours. I don’t hate these people but I’m also not going to coddle them and encourage their ignorance anymore because lots of people are damaged when that happens.
Sooner or later we adults all have to own our stupidity–and choose to be wiser.
https://johnpavlovitz.com/2017/11/28/please-stop-giving-trump-supporters-stupidity-pass/
-------
snip//
It’s time we stopped giving adult human beings the benefit of the doubt, simply because we think they’re not smart enough not to be fooled by religious shysters, fake news peddlers, and political snake oil salesmen. If that is true, then they’re also not smart or mentally available enough to be presented with objective data or compelling argument and to filter them responsibility. They are practically speaking, unreachable with rational measures.
I’m tired of having to treat people like children, when they aren’t capable or willing to see what even a child can see, what my children can see. They know hatred and bullying without needing to read a think piece or do online research or unpack layers of religion and history.
I’m over justifying bigotry and racism and the horrible stuff happening in the country, and giving people who perpetuate it a pass because they supposedly don’t realize they’re supporting a monster,—when most of the watching world seems to get it.
In a time when information is available at our fingertips and when conversation and study and exploration are limitless, I’ve through excusing adult men and women for not being able to make a decision that is based in reality, simply because they’re in some hateful, self-righteous, nationalistic bubble. That’s their fault, not ours. I don’t hate these people but I’m also not going to coddle them and encourage their ignorance anymore because lots of people are damaged when that happens.
Sooner or later we adults all have to own our stupidity–and choose to be wiser.
https://johnpavlovitz.com/2017/11/28/please-stop-giving-trump-supporters-stupidity-pass/
-------
Pastor Explains: When White Folks Say Obama Was an “Embarrassment”, Here is Your Response
By
cpowell
From Bluedot Daily: One of the common responses to criticism of Donald Trump by his mostly white voters is something along the lines “we were embarrassed by Obama for 8 years.” One pastor is calling out that nonsense.
Progressive pastor John Pavlovitz, a favorite of ours here, has penned an open letter to those white Trump voters, informing them that no, in fact, they weren’t embarrassed by the former President.
Were you embarrassed by his lone and enduring twenty-five year marriage to a strong woman he’s never ceased to publicly praise, respect, or cherish?
Were you embarrassed by the way he lovingly and sweetly parented and protected his daughters?
I remember the day after the Election, a friend of mine who happens to be white, remarked on social media that he “finally wasn’t embarrassed of America and our President.”
I sprained my eyes rolling them and they have never fully recovered.
Since then I’ve heard this sentiment echoed by more white folks than I can count, especially in recent months; supposed relief at once again having a leader who instills pride.
Since I don’t have the time to ask each of the individually, I’ll ask here:
So, you were embarrassed for the past 8 years, huh?
Really?
What exactly were you embarrassed by?
Were you embarrassed by his lone and enduring twenty-five year marriage to a strong woman he’s never ceased to publicly praise, respect, or cherish?
Were you embarrassed by the way he lovingly and sweetly parented and protected his daughters?
Were you embarrassed by his Columbia University degree in Political Science or his graduating magna cum laude from Harvard Law School?
Maybe you were embarrassed by his white American and Black Kenyan parents, or the diversity he was raised in as normal?
Were you embarrassed by his eloquence, his quick wit, his easy humor, his seeming comfort meeting with both world leaders and street cleaners; by his bright smile or his sense of empathy or his steadiness—perhaps by his lack of personal scandals or verbal gaffes or impulsive tirades?
No. Of course you weren’t.
Honestly, I don’t believe you were ever embarrassed. That word implies an association that brings ridicule, one that makes you ashamed by association, and if that’s something you claim to have experienced over the past eight years by having Barack Obama representing you in the world—I’m going to suggest you rethink your word choice.
You weren’t “embarrassed” by Barack Obama.
You were threatened by him.
You were offended by him.
You were challenged by him.
You were enraged by him.
But I don’t believe it had anything to do with his resume or his experience or his character or his conduct in office—because you seem fully proud right now to be associated with a three-time married, serial adulterer and confessed predator; a man whose election and business dealings and relationships are riddled with controversy and malfeasance. You’re perfectly fine being represented by a bullying, obnoxious, genitalia-grabbing, Tweet-ranting, Prime Minister-shoving charlatan who’s managed to offended all our allies in a few short months. And you’re okay with him putting on religious faith like a rented, dusty, ill-fitting tuxedo and immediately tossing it in the garbage when he’s finished with it.
None of that you’re embarrassed of? I wonder how that works.
Actually, I’m afraid I have an idea. I hope I’m wrong.
Listen, you’re perfectly within your rights to have disagreed with Barack Obama’s policies or to have taken issue with his tactics. No one’s claiming he was a flawless politician or a perfect human being. But somehow I don’t think that’s what we’re talking about here. I think the thing President Obama did that really upset you, white friend—was having a complexion that was far darker than you were ever comfortable with. I think the President we have now feels much better.
Because objectively speaking, if what’s happening in our country right now doesn’t cause you great shame and doesn’t induce the continual meeting of your palm to your face—I don’t believe embarrassment is ever something you struggle with.
No, if you claimed to be “embarrassed” by Barack Obama but you’re not embarrassed by Donald Trump—I’m going to strongly suggest it was largely a pigmentation issue.
And as an American and a Christian committed to diversity and equality and to the liberty at the heart of this nation--that, embarrasses me.
Well said, Pastor. Well said indeed.
Progressive pastor John Pavlovitz, a favorite of ours here, has penned an open letter to those white Trump voters, informing them that no, in fact, they weren’t embarrassed by the former President.
Were you embarrassed by his lone and enduring twenty-five year marriage to a strong woman he’s never ceased to publicly praise, respect, or cherish?
Were you embarrassed by the way he lovingly and sweetly parented and protected his daughters?
I remember the day after the Election, a friend of mine who happens to be white, remarked on social media that he “finally wasn’t embarrassed of America and our President.”
I sprained my eyes rolling them and they have never fully recovered.
Since then I’ve heard this sentiment echoed by more white folks than I can count, especially in recent months; supposed relief at once again having a leader who instills pride.
Since I don’t have the time to ask each of the individually, I’ll ask here:
So, you were embarrassed for the past 8 years, huh?
Really?
What exactly were you embarrassed by?
Were you embarrassed by his lone and enduring twenty-five year marriage to a strong woman he’s never ceased to publicly praise, respect, or cherish?
Were you embarrassed by the way he lovingly and sweetly parented and protected his daughters?
Were you embarrassed by his Columbia University degree in Political Science or his graduating magna cum laude from Harvard Law School?
Maybe you were embarrassed by his white American and Black Kenyan parents, or the diversity he was raised in as normal?
Were you embarrassed by his eloquence, his quick wit, his easy humor, his seeming comfort meeting with both world leaders and street cleaners; by his bright smile or his sense of empathy or his steadiness—perhaps by his lack of personal scandals or verbal gaffes or impulsive tirades?
No. Of course you weren’t.
Honestly, I don’t believe you were ever embarrassed. That word implies an association that brings ridicule, one that makes you ashamed by association, and if that’s something you claim to have experienced over the past eight years by having Barack Obama representing you in the world—I’m going to suggest you rethink your word choice.
You weren’t “embarrassed” by Barack Obama.
You were threatened by him.
You were offended by him.
You were challenged by him.
You were enraged by him.
But I don’t believe it had anything to do with his resume or his experience or his character or his conduct in office—because you seem fully proud right now to be associated with a three-time married, serial adulterer and confessed predator; a man whose election and business dealings and relationships are riddled with controversy and malfeasance. You’re perfectly fine being represented by a bullying, obnoxious, genitalia-grabbing, Tweet-ranting, Prime Minister-shoving charlatan who’s managed to offended all our allies in a few short months. And you’re okay with him putting on religious faith like a rented, dusty, ill-fitting tuxedo and immediately tossing it in the garbage when he’s finished with it.
None of that you’re embarrassed of? I wonder how that works.
Actually, I’m afraid I have an idea. I hope I’m wrong.
Listen, you’re perfectly within your rights to have disagreed with Barack Obama’s policies or to have taken issue with his tactics. No one’s claiming he was a flawless politician or a perfect human being. But somehow I don’t think that’s what we’re talking about here. I think the thing President Obama did that really upset you, white friend—was having a complexion that was far darker than you were ever comfortable with. I think the President we have now feels much better.
Because objectively speaking, if what’s happening in our country right now doesn’t cause you great shame and doesn’t induce the continual meeting of your palm to your face—I don’t believe embarrassment is ever something you struggle with.
No, if you claimed to be “embarrassed” by Barack Obama but you’re not embarrassed by Donald Trump—I’m going to strongly suggest it was largely a pigmentation issue.
And as an American and a Christian committed to diversity and equality and to the liberty at the heart of this nation--that, embarrasses me.
Well said, Pastor. Well said indeed.
real people funnies & comments
“Ayn Rand's 'philosophy' is nearly perfect in its immorality, which makes the size of her audience all the more ominous and symptomatic as we enter a curious new phase in our society.... To justify and extol human greed and egotism is to my mind not only immoral, but evil.” - Gore Vidal
