Who are the first people that come to mind when you think of the Montgomery bus boycotts of the 1950s?  Are there any teenagers on your list? If not, set a place at the table for several, and in particular, for Claudette Colvin. And make it a round table so that as many people as possible can share her story.

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose is the 2009 National Book Award Winner for Young People’s Literature. It is a masterfully crafted, beautifully rendered account of two pivotal events in Claudette Colvin’s life, much of it told in her own words and accompanied by primary documents, police reports, and signage that transport you right to Montgomery, Alabama in the 1950s.

On March 2, 1955, 15-year-old Colvin refuses to surrender her bus seat to a white passenger almost a year before Rosa Parks did the same. Her action wasn’t planned, though a long trail of experiences led her to that moment, including an unquenchable thirst for learning and critically examining the degrading and at times horrific events surrounding her, and her mounting frustration with adults who would bemoan segregation behind closed doors but fail to act.

Imagine yourself at 15 and in her shoes. Two policemen, both bigger than you, pull you right out of your bus seat, sending your school books flying everywhere. One kicks you as they both drag you off the bus and arrest you. Then they ask you to stick your hands out of the police car so that they can handcuff you for all to see. On the way to the city jail – the adult jail – they call you every imaginable name and try to guess your bra size, and when you arrive at the station, they don’t even allow you to make a phone call.

Many of the adult civil rights leaders had much to lose with their brave actions; the teens who stood up (or remained seated) for their constitutional rights had everything to lose. They did not have established reputations on which to draw. Nor did they necessarily have the family status or attend the “best” churches. Rather, they were immersed in the sometimes murky waters of high school where student opinions shift like the tides; one minute you’re a hero, and the next you’re an outcast and are shunned. Given that, Claudette Colvin’s courage is the rawest, bravest kind. She puts her entire future on the line; she had had dreams of attending law school.

The second momentous action that Claudette Colvin takes, at great risk to herself and her family, involves the Browder vs. Gayle case in which the plaintiffs sue the city of Montgomery.  One year after her arrest, Colvin agrees to be a plaintiff in the Browder vs. Gayle case that ended segregation on the buses. Though not widely known, this case changed the relationships of blacks and whites in America and around the world. Another teenager, Mary Louise Smith, was also a plaintiff. Rosa Parks was not.

Author Phillip Hoose first heard of Claudette Colvin in 2000 when he was writing We Were There Too! Young People in U. S. History. When he first contacted her, Ms. Colvin wasn’t ready to tell her story for reasons she talks about in the book. It took four years before she agreed to meet with him.

This 2009 National Book Award Winner is more than deserving of the accolade – it’s a major addition to our understanding of the events that changed the course of history, and the very courageous teens that stepped out onto the front lines to effect that change.  Reserve a copy of this book from the library as fast as you can, and then give this book to everyone you know. (Christie, The Loft)

Watch this video of Claudette Colvin and author Phillip Hoose.

I finished the bestseller, The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, this weekend and I recommend it wholeheartedly. A novel set in the early 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi, The Help tells the stories of black maids working for white families in the tempestuous shifts from segregation and Jim Crow to civil rights. It is riveting, heartbreaking, uplifting, redeeming, beautifully crafted, moving, elucidating and deeply satisfying as a novel. Read this book!

~ Zoe Weil
Author of Most Good, Least Harm

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            For the past year or so, the District of Columbia’s city council has been engaged in a tug-of-war between factions as it has attempted to conduct the people’s business: first, it was a meddlesome Congress that tried to supersede all local direction of the city’s gun-control policy.  Then, an ongoing proxy battle with an arrogant mayor resulted in clashes related to education, recreation, and contracting policy.  Now, the Archdiocese of Washington is threatening to withdraw from its Catholic Charities partnership with the city—in which the Church provides social services to some 68,000 homeless and poor residents—if the council proceeds with its plan to legalize same-sex marriage next month.

            There are plenty of freedom-of-conscience provisions built into the bill: the Church would not be required to marry same-sex couples or allow them access to non-public spaces of their property.  They would, however, be required to follow non-discriminatory guidelines for entities receiving government money—e.g. extending health insurance to and facilitating adoptions for gay couples.  Since Catholic Charities would not, out of moral reservation, be able to meet those requirements, it would thus not be eligible to do business with the city.

            Reactions have been mixed: some council members say that the Church is not indispensible to the city and should not dictate its policy.  Other people are sure that more concessions could be made to satisfy Church tenets without subjecting gays to wholesale prejudice.  Still others have argued that the measure should be put on the ballot, as has been the case in dozens of states.  Mostly, this argument has come from gay marriage foes, confident that a law will be rejected if submitted to voters (a board of elections and ethics has twice denied a ballot initiative or referendum to go forward). 

            One recent opinion article in The Washington Post presented an alternative version of that argument: a gay man in D.C. who writes, “I yearn, too, to be married someday, but at what cost? To force same-sex marriage into law through the caprice of judges, the sympathies of a majority of various legislatures or even the fiat of a president can be viewed as a kind of tyranny.”  While it’s common for parties who are on the losing side of policy fights to rail against “activist” judges and legislators that don’t respect the “will of the people,” it is strange to see that sentiment from someone who is benefitting greatly from those two sources of legal redress.

            There are two main points to be made about this controversy: one, is that not all opinions are equal.  I can, at a basic level, understand why the Catholic church would deny religious services to gay couples: for the reason that spiritual beliefs cannot be legislated out of existence, nor are they something that the believer can choose to have.  To have faith or not is hardly a free and simple choice for most believers—although the same can be true about being homosexual.  (And yes, I realize that the religious community is not monolithic—there are undoubtedly Catholics who would gladly marry two homosexuals.)  However, governmental protection to practice one’s beliefs does not mean that discrimination is legal.  To say that the Church’s views on sexuality should be given equal consideration as should views on sexuality from a scientific, cultural, or human rights perspective is erroneous.

            Secondly, the will of the people is a fickle protector of civil rights.  Even though it is our duty to resist governmental encroachment on our liberties, the legislatures and the courts were never intended to be a reflection of popular opinion.  As dysfunctional as our Congress appears at times, the elected men and women always have to take a view of what the greater good to society is when they cast their vote, which sometimes entails offending their constituents.  The courts, to an even greater degree, do not merely affirm and clarify policy that the legislature has passed, but they sometimes must overturn it when it violates the Constitution.

            People (conservatives in particular) abhor the notion that one unelected judge can alter the course of history by deciding which laws are appropriate or inappropriate by the principles of our society.  Take these words of an ambivalent Supreme Court justice in the early 1950s: “how is it that the Constitution this morning forbids what for three-quarters of a century it has tolerated or approved?”  The case he was reviewing was Brown v. Board of Education.  The man was Robert Jackson, a liberal who was having doubts about overturning segregation laws (even though a decade earlier he was in the minority of justices who voted to uphold the rights of Japanese-American citizens who had been placed in internment camps).

         In the end, of course, he voted to end segregation.  But for him and others like him who have spurned the popular will to uphold the Constitution, I would hope that the people who are elected or appointed to run the government are chosen not just for their knowledge of policy, but for their ability to listen to all sides and create laws that demonstrate the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

My department hosted an interesting speaker last night. The 2009 Angus Gilbert Lecture was given by Minnijean Brown Trickey, a veteran civil rights campaigner from the southern United States.

Brown Trickey was one of the Little Rock Nine, the black high school students who desegregated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957.  While the world watched, the students were turned away from the all-white school, first by the Arkansas National Guard and then by an angry white mob. Days later, in a seminal moment in US history, the students entered the school accompanied by 1200 armed US troops.  For the remainder of the school year, soldiers escorted the students to and from school. You can read more about her dramatic story here.

Brown Trickey has devoted her life to the causes of peace, the environment, and human rights.  She holds a bachelor’s degree in Native Human Services from Laurentian University and a master’s degree from Carleton University. In 2007, Laurentian conferred upon her an honorary doctorate of laws. In the administration of President Bill Clinton, she served in the Department of the Interior as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Diversity.  She is a recipient of the US Congressional Medal.

Entitled “Little Rock Revisited,” Brown Trickey’s lecture re-examined this seminal moment in the history of education and civil rights.

For more information, contact Professor Stephen Azzi, Department of History, at 675-1151, extension 4190.

Le mercredi 25 novembre, Minnijean Brown Trickey, qui fait campagne depuis longtemps pour le mouvement des droits de la personne aux États-Unis, a prononcé une communication à l’Université Laurentienne.

Brown Trickey faisait partie du « Little Rock Nine », le groupe d’élèves noirs de l’école secondaire qui, en 1957, a déségrégationné la Central High School à Little Rock, en Arkansas. Sous le regard du monde entier, on avait interdit à ces élèves d’entrer dans une école réservée aux Blancs, d’abord la Garde nationale d’Arkansas et ensuite, une bande d’émeutiers blancs. Plusieurs jours plus tard, lors d’un moment marquant de l’histoire américaine, ces élèves sont entrés dans l’école sous escorte de 1 200 soldats américains armés et pendant toute l’année scolaire, des soldats ont dû accompagner ces jeunes avant et après l’école. Pour plus de renseignements sur la vie de Madame Trickey, cliquez ici.

Ayant dévoué sa vie aux causes de la paix, de l’environnement et des droits de la personne, Minnijean Brown Trickey est titulaire d’un baccalauréat en services sociaux pour les Autochtones de l’Université Laurentienne ainsi que d’une maîtrise de l’Université Carleton. En 2007, la Laurentienne lui a conféré un doctorat honorifique en droit. En qualité de membre de l’administration du Président Clinton, elle a été secrétaire adjointe déléguée à la diversité au ministère de l’Intérieur. Elle est aussi lauréate d’une médaille d’honneur du Congrès américain.

La communication de Minnijean Brown Trickey, intitulée « Little Rock Revisited », a examiné à nouveau ce point saillant de l’histoire de l’éducation et des droits de la personne.

Pour obtenir plus de renseignements, communiquez avec le professeur Stephen Azzi du Département d’histoire, au 675-1151, poste 4190.

La Conférence commémorative Angus-Gilbert est présentée annuellement afin de rendre hommage à M. Angus Gilbert, professeur au Département d’histoire, qui a perdu son combat contre le cancer en 1993, après une longue et brillante carrière à la Laurentienne. Il était un universitaire reconnu, un professeur populaire et un collègue hautement respecté pour les services qu’il a rendus à l’Université.

we all see the dirty shadows of bad waste practices looming large over the City because of careless littering, indiscriminate dumping , huge land filling and the indignity of scavenging of waste . And while we are aware that it may be that the glaring inadequacy of city infrastructure only lends to make matters worse.

What needs careful consideration is, what is it that ‘We’ can do about it.
The only solution source segregation of garbage,composing wet kitchen waste ,recycle and manage disposal.
We need to be sensitive about where our garbage lands once it leaves our door.It just takes a little effort to make a big difference.Do we have the right to contaminate the earth any more ? There is an obligation on our part to protect the environment.We can start by just simply segregating and manage the disposal.

Réflexions sur l’idée du texte de la chanson « là-bas » de Jean Jacques GOLDMAN qui image bien cette volonté d’immigration clandestine pour une vie meilleure.

L’immigration clandestine est devenue le fléau des sociétés occidentales et des pays développés en général. De multiples raisons incitent l’immigration clandestine, les guerres, la pauvreté, l’impossibilité de se projeter dans un avenir …Envie de travail, envie de gagner de l’argent, vouloir bénéficier de droits sociaux, vouloir être reconnu …
Immenses paradoxes pour le travail de votre dissertation.

Un sans papier, un immigré clandestin l’incitation dès le départ à quitter une culture, un pays un environnement, dans le seul but de pouvoir gagner sa vie, faire vivre sa famille dignement lui permettre de vivre plus aisément voir plus librement, lui donner des chances de survie parfois…
Fuir un environnement hostile vide d’espoirs d’épanouissement, de connaissances, de sentiments de fierté, de chance et de réussite, le choix n’en est pas toujours un.
Il existe aussi une grande différence entre sans papier parfois installé depuis de nombreuses années dans un pays, ayant travaillé toutes ces années sans possibilité de se faire reconnaître réellement comme citoyen avec sans cesse la peur au ventre et le risque d’être expulsé, et un immigré clandestin qui arrive sur un continent, dans un pays où les difficultés sont si nombreuses que sa vision d’idéalisme tombe très vite dans le réalisme d’espoirs qui resteront peut-être vains, pris ainsi dans l’engrenage de la clandestinité aussi bien pour le pays d’origine que celui où il est arrivé, le combat de la vie n’est pas terminé … Certains profitent de ces situations et c’est aussi parmi ces raisons qu’aujourd’hui la situation est devenue si critique.

Proximité entre luxe et pauvreté, pays développés et sous développés séparés de frontières parfois si proches…Les chances ne sont pas les mêmes pour tous… « Tout dépend de ta naissance, et moi je ne suis pas bien né »…
Nous avons évoqués les différentes incitations à vouloir changer de vie. Ne sont elles pas légitimes et compréhensives « ici, nos rêves sont étroits » « là-bas, j’aurai ma chance, j’aurai des droits » est il si facile que cela de quitter son pays, sa famille, ses racines…Même si les  eldorados entrevus ne le sont pas, les chances ne restent elles pas pour autant meilleures ?…

Il y a tant de réflexions, il y a tant d’interrogations, il y a à la fois tant de gaspillages et de sur consommation d’un côté, et d’un autre côté tant de manques vitaux parfois si petits comparés aux richesses avoisinantes et donc tant de manques d’objectifs à atteindre …

Quelles pourraient être les actions à mener pour permettre une meilleure égalité des chances, pour accepter les différences dans des mondes économiques où tout le monde devrait pouvoir trouver sa place en toute légitimité…

Sista mötet i bryggeriet? En åhörare kom till nämndens andra öppna sammanträde. Nu skall det utvärderas och vi får se om vi fortsätter.

De båda ärendena om skeppsbron och ny älvförbindelse jag skrev om i mitt förra inlägg bordlades av den borgerliga sidan så diskussionerna uteblev denna gång men lär återkomma om en månad.

När det gäller skeppsbron presenterade Miljöpartiet ett intressant yrkande. De föreslog 50 procent hyresrätter, 25 procent kooperativ hyresrätt som inte kan säljas och 25 procent bostadsrätter. Jag föreslog 100procent i allmännyttan i mitt yrkande. Socialdemokraterna verkade intresserade av något liknande. Förhoppningsvis kan vi hitta en kompromiss under bordläggningen. Jag är trots allt inte gjord av trä, som jag framhöll i diskussionen.

Lennart Widén från stadsbyggnadskontoret informerade om planerna med ny älvförbindelse och byggnation på skeppsbron.

Det viktiga är att vi kommer bort från dagens planer som säger 75 procent bostadsrätter vilket bokstavligen skulle cementera Göteborgs klasstruktur i gatubilden.

Folkpartiet presenterade ett yrkande om att försöka bevara träd på områden där man anlägger skolgårdar vilket alla slöt upp bakom med mindre justeringar.

Läkemedelsrester i avloppsslam

Miljöpartiet och jag röstade för att nämnden skulle tillstyrka en motion av Karin Pleijel (MP) och Kia Andreasson (MP) om att utreda möjligheterna till försök med ozonrening av avloppsvatten för att komma till rätta med läkemedelsrester. De borgerliga och socialdemokraterna gick dock ihop om att enbart skicka förvaltningens tjänsteutlåtande som yttrande utan eget ställningstagande från nämnden. Eftersom tjänsteulåtandet innehöll skrivningar om att även titta på andra tekniker tyckte jag att det var bra att tillstyrka motionen med stöd av förvaltningens tjänsteutlåtande.

Miljömåltider

Vi antecknade en bra uppföljning av nämndernas arbete med miljömåltiderna. Den ger tydliga signaler på att arbetet med målet måste utvecklas. Miljönämnden som processägare för målet har många utmaningar framför sig innan ett välformulerat mål med en god uppföljning är på plats.

Vägverket backar om överklagande

På mitt initiativ beslutade nämnden i februari att förelägga Vägverket och trafiknämnden att inkomma med en åtgärdsplan för att komma tillrätta med överskridandet av miljökvalitetsnormen för kvävedioxid. Vägverket överklagade som jag rapporterade om i september. Trafiknämnden skickade in sitt svar. Nu har Vägverket återtagit sin överklagan. Det visar att miljönämndens agerande som myndighet var korrekt och välavvägt. Nu väntar vi bara på Vägverkets svar.

Försöket med öppna sammanträden är över

På mitt initiativ har det förra och dagens sammanträde varit öppna för allmänheten förutom de punkter där vi agerar myndighet. En åhörare kom till nämndens andra öppna sammanträde. Nu skall det utvärderas och vi får se om vi fortsätter. Det är kanske svårt att dra några slutsatser från två möten med få besökare. Å andra sidan innebär det inga problem för nämnden eller förvaltningen så spontant tycker jag att vi skall fortsätta. Dagens upplägg att lägga myndighetsärendena sist i stället för först var bättre. Då kan man börja på utsatt tid och inte låta allmänheten vänta alternativt nämnden stressa igenom myndighetsärendena.

I övrigt hänvisar jag till förvaltningens pressmeddelande:

Nej till logistikcentrum vid Hisingsleden – stora naturvärden hotas

Ett nytt logistikcentrum för lagring och omlastning av gods planeras mellan Sörredsvägen och Hisingsleden. Under planarbetets gång har det kommit fram ny kunskap om områdets naturvärden, som gör att miljönämnden nu avstyrker planen i sitt yttrande till byggnadsnämnden.

Planområdet hyser tre skyddade arter som inte tidigare var kända för området – hasselsnok, åkergroda och större vattensalamander. Dessa arter är strikt skyddade enligt EU-direktiv och artskyddsförordningen i svensk lagstiftning. En utbyggnad enligt förslaget skulle innebära att den sällsynta hasselsnoken slås ut helt, och de andra två arterna skulle påverkas negativt.

Undantag från skyddet kan beviljas av länsstyrelsen efter en bedömning av om allmänintresset att genomföra planen väger tyngre än naturskyddet.

Stopp för skadliga ljudnivåer på konserter i Göteborg

Vid flera konserter i Göteborg sommaren 2009 uppmätte miljöförvaltningen ljudnivåer över tillåtna riktvärden. Det gällde bland annat Europes konsert under Kulturkalaset, Deep Purples konsert i Trädgårdsföreningen och My Bloody Valentines och Teddybears konserter på Way Out West i Slottsskogen. Miljöförvaltningen bedömer att det rörde sig om kraftiga överskridanden. För att förhindra att detta upprepas förelägger nu miljönämnden de ansvariga arrangörerna Göteborg&Co, Park- och naturförvaltningen samt Lugerinc AB.  De ska se till att publiken inte utsätts för skadliga ljunivåer vid konserter som de anordnar under 2010 och 2011, annars hotar ett vite på 150 000.

Miljöanpassad utrustning bör väljas när lekplatser rustas upp

Miljöförvaltningen har undersökt utbudet av lekplatsutrustning hos kommunens leverantörer genom att titta på vad som finns på ramavtal för Göteborg Stad. Undersökningen visar att det finns bra alternativ att välja mellan när man ska köpa nytt. Material som på sikt bör bytas ut är till exempel gungor och fallskyddsplattor av återvunna bildäck och trä som är impregnerat med miljöfarliga träskyddsmedel.

Rapporten R 2009:12 Förstudie lekplatsutrustning – en inventering av utbudet av lekplatsutrustning enligt ramavtal för Göteborgs Stad” är tänkt att fungera som en vägledning för inköpare i staden.

Over and out, för denna gång!

Intressant? Läs även andra bloggares åsikter om miljö, ekologi, miljönämnd, tillsyn, myndighet, myndighetsutövning, hållbar utveckling, klimat, trafik, energi,

First off, a big thank you to Nikki, Kate, and Cayce for the opportunity to guest blog at Irene’s Daughters.  I hope I can contribute something to the excellent posts and discussions thus far!

Last week I came across this CNN article about a group of seniors who grew up in Macon, GA during the Jim Crow Era, and recently held a racially integrated 50th high school reunion.   The article is well worth reading, not only as encouraging stories about race seem so rare these days, but also because it’s a good starting point for a number of different discussions about race.   In particular, the article got me thinking about the invisibility of white privilege, and the importance of concrete action to racial reconciliation and anti-racist activism.

I got to thinking about white privilege after reading comments from seniors – black and white – interviewed in the article who recalled that as children, they perceived segregation as normal.  It wasn’t something to be challenged or questioned, and for some it wasn’t even understood as discriminatory.  It was simply a “way of life,” taken for granted as the way the world was and had to be:

Listening to his mother and her childhood friends, Cordell said, he was struck by how segregation was “was so transparent to them at the time they were living through it. It was a way of life, so they didn’t acknowledge its existence.”

“I find it interesting how human nature teaches you to accept things that are — and some people question the reality, and other people don’t.”

Institutionalized racism and white privilege work in much the same way in the present day.  We are accustomed to the many effects of racism and white privilege in our society: the disproportionate dominance of white males in almost every sector of business and culture, de facto segregation in schools, churches, and workplaces; racial gaps in hiring, income, and school performance, to name just a few.  Many Americans have become so inured to these realities that they see them as just The Way Things Are – or worse, just the way “those people” are.

This is part of how privilege of any kind works – by presenting an uneven playing field as anything but what it is.  People who benefit from privilege don’t generally believe that they have been given a leg up on those who don’t; rather, they tend to believe that everyone has an equal opportunity to get ahead in life, and they just happen to be ahead because they have worked hard, made good choices, and otherwise made good use of the same opportunities everyone else has.  By this logic, social and economic racial disparities can only be explained by failure to take full advantage of these opportunities.  Privilege thrives on the assumption that a system of unfair advantages is really a system based on pure merit.  This mythology ignores the ongoing effects of past racial injustice, denies the reality of present-day racism, and presents white privilege and racial disparities as natural byproducts of the way things are, the way people are.  This naturalization of racial injustice is a major obstacle to candid discussions about white privilege.  It is very difficult to have a discussion about something that we are taught to believe doesn’t exist.

So the question is, what can we as people committed to anti-racism and racial reconciliation do to challenge white privilege and make it more visible?  We need to ask ourselves how we have bought into white privilege as a way of life.  White allies have a particular responsibility to check and question their own privilege, but those of us who are POC can also play a part.   We may not have access to white privilege, but we often participate in it and buy into it.  With that in mind, here are some of the ways I am working to resist the tendency to naturalize white privilege (and other forms of privilege) in my own life:
- I am working to become more conscious of the ways I buy into white privilege:  making positive assumptions about white people (well-off, intelligent, safe) and negative assumptions about POC (poor, uneducated, dangerous).  Assuming I have a right to information about POC that I wouldn’t dream of asking a white person (where are you “really from?,” etc.)
- I share my perspective as a POC with my white friends and family members.  It’s not that it’s my job to educate them, but that it’s important to be open to have conversations about privilege with people who might be more disposed to hear where I’m coming from.
- I am working to become more conscious of my own privilege in other areas, and to recognize that privilege and prejudice are intersectional.  I have access to privilege because of my socioeconomic status, my sexuality and gender identity, and my religious upbringing, and I have a responsibility to check and question myself on those counts.

What are your thoughts on how we can work to expose and challenge white privilege?  Please share your ideas in the comments.

The Neocon Republican Terrorist vision of a divided and segregated America, where everybody that is not a white Anglo-saxon Christian is considered cannon fodder and trash, is coming to fruition. It is reminiscent of the reaction to the new population of freed slaves that the white former slave masters had after they were soundly defeated in the Civil War by the Union army.

This is the period in our history called Reconstruction where,for a decade after the Civil War,blacks gained political power, and some attained financial wealth as well.

During Reconstruction, southern whites turned violent when they saw blacks making major gains.

 Reconstruction was followed in the South by domination by the Democratic Party and the enactment of Jim Crow laws, grandfather clauses and similar measures. The bitterness and repercussions from the heated conflicts of the era lasted well into the twentieth century.

Read more about the Reconstruction era here… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstruction_era_of_the_United_States 

Southern state governments quickly enacted the restrictive “black codes“. However, they were abolished in 1866 and seldom had effect, because the Freedman’s Bureau (not the local courts) handled the legal affairs of freedmen.

The Black Codes indicated the plans of the southern whites for the former slaves.^[24] The freedmen would have more rights than did free blacks before the war, but they still had only a limited set of second-class civil rights, no voting rights, and, since they were not citizens, they could not own firearms, serve on a jury in a lawsuit involving whites or move about without employment.^[25] The Black Codes would limit blacks’ ability to control their own employment. The Black Codes outraged northern opinion. They were overthrown by the Civil Rights Act of 1866 that gave the Freedmen full legal equality (except for the right to vote).^[26

 There were many reported murders of blacks in the south during reconstruction, but many killings of blacks went unreported, and by all accounts, millions upon millions of African-Americans were killed by the hands of bitter southerners, as reported in this account taken from Wikipedia by a soldier visiting from the North...

The number of murders and assaults perpetrated upon Negroes is very great; we can form only an approximate estimate of what is going on in those parts of the South which are not closely garrisoned, and from which no regular reports are received, by what occurs under the very eyes of our military authorities. As to my personal experience, I will only mention that during my two days sojourn at Atlanta, one Negro was stabbed with fatal effect on the street, and three were poisoned, one of whom died.

In todays modern post-racial world, we have organizations and groups that have a mission to keep track of, and to investigate the existence of, the number of racially motivated,or bias motivated crimes against minorities,religious groups, gay Americans.

Currently, America is going through another Reconstruction like era,as we are experiencing the racial backlash of hatred based on the election of our first black president,Barack Obama.

The election of Barack has caused a rise in all forms of hate crimes, as well as the emergence of the Ku Klux Klan as a force to stoke the flames of hatred and encouraging physical action of violence against blacks, Gays, and all other religious groups that are not Christian.

What is most distressing is that the tide of racial violence is being egged on and financed by the foreigner Rupert Murdoch, and the entire Republican party,that at one time represented the opposite of what they believe in now.

For a group that, centuries ago, used to be the main supporter of civil rights, they currently are the main driving force behind this increasing tide of racism and bigotry that is the rage in most of the states in America.

The racist are moving from the south, and invading the once liberal California, in order to spread their southern tradition of hatred and illiteracy. Hate crimes based on sexual orientation shot up 21 percent in Los Angeles County last year, while religious crimes increased 14 percent, because the southern bigots have moved in.

The Daily News in Los Angeles reports that...in 2008  in the Valley,James Shamp, an African-American man who worked as a janitor at a bowling alley in Canoga Park, was shot to death as he was throwing out trash. According to the report, three members of the Canoga Park Alabama gang, which has a long history of violent anti-black crimes, were arrested and charged with murder and hate crime enhancements.

The San Fernando Valley had the most amount of hate crimes in the Los Angeles area.

"Whenever I look at a map of hate crimes, I find there is a great diversity of hate crimes that occur in the San Fernando Valley," said Robin Toma, executive director of the commission. "You have anti-Semitic hate crimes, homophobic hate crimes and racially motivated hate crimes. There is also the phenomena of racialized gang violence."

Sexual orientation hate crimes rose the most last year, with more than 80 percent targeting gay men and at least nine crimes traced to Proposition 8.

A report on a sexually motivated hate crime from the Daily News... A white lesbian couple walking hand-in-hand on the beach in Malibu. The mother of a white tourist family from Arkansas told them, "You are going to burn in hell!" and dumped her water bottle on one of them and punched one in the face...

Please keep that level of ignorance in Arkansas,...and my family is from Arkansas.

The election of the first black president and hot-button issues such as abortion and gay marriage contributed to the spikes, anti-bias groups say. Public figures like Sarah Palin and Glen Beck have done a lot to cause the current racial hatred that whites are visiting on all others.

The two of them have been quite effective when it come to rallying sympathy for groups like the KKK and the Nazis.

USA TODAY is reporting that the number of attacks on blacks increased 8% to 2,876, accounting for seven of every 10 race-motivated crimes.

"There is this kind of extremism going on," says Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP Washington bureau. He says Obama's election and the recession led to a backlash against blacks as some people look for someone to blame for hard economic times. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-11-23-hate-crimes_N.htm

I say to the world, this is a good look at the so-called ''Post-Racial'' America, a country where race relations and the unity of the races has been usurped by the in vogue traditional American practice of racial bias,hatred and division.

Our country has been going through this cycle for well over a Hundred and 8o years, and by the looks of things, that sad tradition will continue.

What do we do to end this....will we come together, or will we have to resort to our primal instinct, where only the strong survive.

I think that based on 200 years of data and statistics, the tradition of racism is alive, well, and thriving in the United States, and that we are guilty of the same atrocities against humanity...our own people, that we so blatantly accuse our so-called enemies of doing to their minority populations.

We are all truly hypocrites.

Read more on this story from these trusted sources…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/23/hate-crime-on-rise-gay-re_n_368276.html

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_13829526

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2009/11/20/LA-sees-hike-in-certain-hate-crimes/UPI-95381258737529/

(Bara ett sista ord om Berlinmuren, sen ska jag låta temat vila ett tag…)

I Tyskland är historien om murens fall väldigt tysk. Återföreningen av det isärhållna, nationen som återigen blir hel – allt detta framstår som en odiskutabel berättelse om ett land och ett folk. Men det som förefaller vara en nationell historia måste även i detta fall, med nödvändighet, blända ut någonting som inte passar in för att få dramatisk klarhet och ett otvetydigt genomslag.

I ett delvis annat syfte köpte jag publiceringsrätten till några av Harry Hempels 80-talsfotografier av muren, som jag skrivit om tidigare. På ett av dessa foton från 1984 vandrar fem glada pojkar vid Berlinmuren: Västberlins turkungar med fotboll i blick.

Kreuzberg Bethaniendamm 1984

De som direkt exponerades vid Berlinmurens fall var ju en etnisk minoritet, av myndigheter och arbetsgivare medvetet placerad i samhällets utkant, i Kreuzberg eller Wedding – stadsdelar som fram till 1989 utgjorde de sista utposterna av den västereuropeiska civilisationen. Det finns en nästa derridask förborgenhet över det faktum att tyskar från var sin sida om kalla kriget fick en segregerad gästarbetargrupp mitt i sin omfamning. (Konstigt att ingen har skrivit om detta.)

När muren föll blev turkenklaverna i Kreuzberg plötsligt mitt i stan. De trängs numera successivt undan av ”Kreuzkölln”- hipsters. Kvarter som för tjugo år sedan kallades “lilla Ankara” förändras sakta men säkert. (Det tar för lång tid! tycker fastighetsinvesterare som alltmer aggressivt opererar i området). Jag såg under min senaste vistelse i Berlin kortfilmen Moruk som driver med street-slacker-klischén av unga turkkillar kring Schleissiches Tor (kort trailer här). Filmen är en bagatell, naturligtvis. Om man verkligen är intresserad av kulturkrockarna i Kreuzberg bör man se filmen Prinzessinnenbad som kom för ett par år sedan. En rätt drabbande skildring av stereotyper och urbana masker, både hos etniska grupper, Västberlins gamla revoltvänster och deras barn.

Yvonne Palm värvade röster i EU-parlamentsvalet.

Att Göteborgs Stad har dåligt med pengar sedan finanskrisen, den borgerliga regeringens skattesänkningar och S och MP:s sänkning av kommunalskatten är ingen nyhet. Hur skall detta underskott hanteras? I SDN Gunnared ligger ett förslag att försöka spara pengar genom att lägga ner projektet Lugna Gatan. Vänsterpartiets Yvonne Palm är av en annan åsikt.

I ett pressmeddelande på partidistriktets hemsida säger hon:

Jag har efter noga övervägande, inläsning av olika dokument, tidningsartiklar, utvärderingar, kontakter med medborgare och ungdomar, kommit fram till att Lugna Gatan är en viktig verksamhet som behövs. Vi får inte överge denna grupp unga

Neddragningar i arbetet med unga leder aldrig till besparingar för samhället. Kostnaderna återkommer i form av missbruk och kriminalitet och då till ett betydligt högre pris ekonomiskt och mänskligt.

Intressant? Läs även andra bloggares åsikter om Lugna Gatan, Gårdsten, Lövgärdet, Rannebergen, Angered, Hammarkullen, Hjällbo, Segregation, Integration, skattesänkningar, ekonomi, besparingar, nedskärningar, felsatsningar, prioriteringar

Ping: GP, GP, GP, GP, GP, GT, GT, GT, GT,

The KKK is sure doing a lot of protesting and marching this past week.

 For a racist organization who routinely mocks the marches,protest, and boycotts organized by the Reverend Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton that they pattern after the Civil Rights protest organized by the late Rev.Martin Luther King,Jr. , they sure are acting a lot like the legendary iconic African-American freedom fighters, with all of their marching and protesting this week.

The protest staged by Dr. King  proved to be  effective in defeating the Klan in the 60’s.

The Klan,just this past week, held two days worth of rallies in Kennett,Missouri in protest of the Heather Ellis versus Wal-Mart case.

http://jerrybrice.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/the-kkk-and-wal-mart-in-memphis-join-forces-and-support-a-15-year-sentence-for-cutting-in-line-down-in-dixieland/

…and on Saturday they held a rally outside the Ole Miss vs. LSU game in protest of Ole Miss dropping  the lyrics and fight song ”Dixie”  from being chanted at their games.

Chancellor Dan Jones had ordered students to stop chanting the homage to the states racist past. After they continued chanting, he ordered the song From Dixie with Love to cease being played.

The Ku Klux Klan came out to rally in lieu of the chant “The South Will Rise Again.”

The medley, combining “Dixie” and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” was often followed by shouts of “The South shall rise again.”…reports the UPI.

Charise Van Horn of the Examiner.com reports…Chancellor Jones sent an address to the student body of the University of Mississippi. It reads, “We cannot even appear to support those outside our community who advocate a revival of segregation. Consequently, I have asked the band not to play ‘From Dixie with Love’ at upcoming athletics events. The absence of this song will send a clear message that the university is neither facilitating nor indirectly condoning the chant.” The order to stop playing the song, From Dixie with Love, was issued on November 17, 2009 to stop playing the song.(http://www.examiner.com/x-12837-US-Headlines-Examiner~y2009m11d21-Ku-Klux-Klan-protest-at-University-of-Mississippi-over-the-South-will-rise-again-photos-video)

The counter protesters outnumbered the klan 10-1 on Saturday, and their ranks included faculty,staff,students, citizens, and alumnae.

They all read  the student creed aloud, including a call for belief in “the dignity of each person.”

“Our major concern was to show that this is what we stand for as a university,” said Artair Rogers, the Associated Student Body president.

Ole Miss, fueled by the insults from the klan, defeated the game LSU 25-23 in the historic rivalry.

http://msn.foxsports.com/cfb/story/10404452/No.-10-LSU’s-late-confusion-boost-for-Ole-Miss

From the looks of things, the klan needed to be on the sideline helping the LSU coach manage his time a lot better than he did, with those last three plays, as he messed up an easy field goal kick with his loopy clock management and ultra-strange play calling at the end.

I mean,LSU fans…didn’t you expect your team to kick a game winning field goal with that last play, rather than the one they ran to lose the game? …Seemed to me to be a pretty easy play to call, and you would have won that game.

I think, as I have been pondering that play all night,…maybe, just maybe, the LSU coach did not want to actually win the game, as it would have been celebrated as a win for the Klan, instead of what it would have been, just a win against Ole Miss.

Who knows, but that had to be the case, because that call was just as bad as the one coach Bill Belicheck made last week, to lose the game against Indy and Peyton Manning….it had to be something like that!

The Klan will never learn.They always support the losing side, and the failed causes like racism and the defeated and humiliated Confederacy that their ancestors supported with their lives.

Many of their ancestors did foolishly in their futile attempt to preserve slavery here in America, and if the scorched earth of General Sherman’s march did not convince them, them they all are truly ignorant and insane.

I watched this game between these two great institutions that at one time denied black players a chance to compete on their teams,…but all that is in the past.

Someone needs to let the klan know that.

The Grand Dragon of the Klan Shane Tate stated that …”We aren’t coming there to cause problems or cause trouble. Trouble has already been caused by a handful at Ole Miss, including the black student body president, who wants to shape Ole Miss into yet another liberal sodomite college.”

What is a sodomite college…together these words mean nothing!…I find this statement to be whimsical and nonsensical, much like gibberish.

Gibberish sounds like a fair  description of the Klan.

Follow the story here…

http://www.examiner.com/x-17321-AfricanAmerican-Sports-Examiner~y2009m11d22-KKK-used-the-Ole-Miss-vs-LSU-football-game-as-platform-for-protest

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2009/11/21/Counter-protest-outnumbers-KKK-at-Ole-Miss/UPI-42151258850426/

Retell: During a drought, the Logan family shares water from their well with anyone who needs it, be they white or black.  Hammer, the narrator’s brother, finds it difficult to share with the Simms family who have tormented the Logans for being black.  After Hammer defends his brother David and beats up Charlie Simms, he and David are forced to work on the Simms’ farm to avoid jail.  Hammer, however, never quite manages to swallow his pride and gets involved in another altercation that causes Charlie to take revenge.

Topics: drought, racism, segregation, bullying, fighting, family

Units of Study: Historical Fiction, Talking and Writing About Texts, Social Issues

Tribes: mutual respect, right to pass, appreciations/no put-downs

Habits of Mind: managing impulsivity

Reading Strategies: inference, synthesis, interpretation, envisionment

My Thoughts: I’ve been trying to locate shorter chapter books to read aloud.  I’m finding that some of my favorite chapter books are too long to complete before the end of a unit. The Well is short, only 92 pages and can be completed within a month-long unit.  I think this could be a great book to read if a class is struggling with the issue of revenge.  In this story, Hammer cannot control his temper.  The situation is extremely unfair, and you empathize with Hammer for fighting with Charlie.  But on the other hand, his decision to take revenge led to his family’s well getting poisoned.  It raises the question whether or not it’s better to fight back with violence or fight back in other ways.

Det är nästan så att jagvill bli ung igen nr jag läser om Ung Vänsters tältaktion utanför fullmäktige i protest mot bostadsbristen. Viktigt med lokala protester mot kranskommunernas aktiva segregationspolitik. De tar inte sitt ansvar för att bygga tillräckligt med hyresrätter utan fortsätter bygga villor åt välbeställda. Jag har berört ämnet här på bloggen tidigare och tidigare och ännu tidigare.

Intressant? Läs även andra bloggares åsikter om Lerum, överklass, segregation, klyftor, bostäder, hyresrätt

Ping: GP,

Watch….

This video was posted by two University of Mississippi students  in response to Ole Miss’s decision to stop playing its traditional fight song From Dixie With Love due to the words chanted by Ole Miss fans at the end of the song.  The words  ”The South Shall  Rise Again”  caused some people to feel that the song was supporting segregation. The University decided to stop the band from playing the song during football games.

click here to listen to From Dixie with Love |insert racist chant here|

The two students have since been suspended from the university.

read more here

——————————————-

BGT Thoughts:  Disgusted, yes….suprised, no!

Once again in the good ole state of Mississippi a few of the good ole boys have decided to show their true colors. In response to Ole Miss’s Chancellor Dan Jones enforcing the decision to not play the song From Dixie with Love at the football games due to the words “The South Shall Rise Again” being chanted at the end of the song, these two young men douchebags decided that they would record their thoughts on the decision and post the video on YouTube for the world to see.

Notice how eagerly they say the word nigger, must have learned that at home home huh?

For some people the words:

The South Shall Rise Again

holds no particular meaning, but for those who know anything about The South you know that a chant of those words means, we welcome segregation, bring on the white robes and confederate flags. The saying is defined in Wikipedia as:  A slogan popular with the KKK and other old Confederate factions after the  of American Civil War 1861-1865

 The big problem is not so much with the slogan itself even though it carries along with it a history of hate and racism. It is the idea that those who use it know very well that the slogan is linked to segregation and hate yet they choose to use it anyway. They choose to chant it proudly because of one ultimate reason, and that reason being that they totally agree with what it is linked to. These two students proved that with their ignorant YouTube rant.

Things never seem to change in Cotton Land smh.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again, racism is very much alive and kicking. There is always someone ready and waiting to prove it!

Johnny Munkhammar(m) och Johan Norberg har idag en intressant debattartikel med rubriken Gör Rosengård och Rinkeby till ekonomiska frizoner. Deras idé är att göra olika stadsdelar, som lider av segregering och hög arbetslöshet, till ekonomiska frizoner.

Alla boende som så önskar får F-skattsedel, arbetsgivaravgiften slopas för boende i området och individuella anställningsavtal tillåts. Det skulle vara ett kraftfullt reformpaket och en signal till invånarna att ta chansen.

Låter som ett otroligt intressant experiment. Inte nog med att det skulle sänka tröskeln för folk att anställa och starta eget, dessa stadsdelar skulle även suga till sig kapital och arbetskraft från mer välfungerande stadsdelar. Författarna föreslår att det ska vara under 10 år, under den tiden kan man hinna bygga upp privat verksamhet.

Det finna med denna idéen är dess enkelhet. Istället för att ett gäng socialingenjörer ska lösa problemen med riktade bidrag, ger man istället medborgarna verktyg att använda sin egen potential att bygga upp något. Rosengård skulle inte bara integreras bättre med övriga stadsdelar, utan det skulle bli mer attraktivt att bo och verka i Rosengård. Jag själv skulle lätt kunna tänka mig att flytta dit om det blir en ekonomisk frizon. Människor som flyttar till andra länder, med helt annan kultur är riktigt driftiga människor. Att fly från landet man är uppväxt i kräver mod och vilja. De facto att man flyttar från mellanöstern eller afrika upp till Sverige är ett bevis på att man vill ta tag i sin situation. Ge dom möjligheten!

W. Churchill har sa en gång “[...]for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.” Det tycker jag är citat rådande makthavare bör ta till säg när de funderar på hur de ska hjälpa utsatta områden i Sverige.

Residents of largely non-white neighborhoods in New York City were far more likely to receive a subprime loan than those in largely white neighborhoods, regardless of the borrower’s race, according to a new study from NYU’s Furman Center.

The study, which controlled for differences in income and loan amounts, found that African-American borrowers living in neighborhoods with the lowest share of non-white residents had a 24 percent chance of receiving a subprime loan. That number increased to 38 percent if the borrower lived in a neighborhood with the highest share of non-white residents.

I picked up Fireflies in December, by Jennifer Erin Valent, during an Amazon promotion in which they offered it free.

Set in the Deep South, this is the story of what happens when a white family takes in an orphaned black girl.

4 3/4 Stars

Plot/Storyline: 4 1/2 Stars

While a bit slow to start, the storyline had a nice, even flow to it. The reader is immersed in the world of a just-turned thirteen year old Southern girl, Jessilyn. While there was not a lot of action, there was plenty to enjoy in each scene with glimpses of Jessie’s life.

One element of the story could have used more explanation for creditability. Jessilyn’s father’s decision to take Gemma into their home as part of the family was not supported by enough back story to explain why he would take such risks to his own family, especially with the great danger to his own daughter.

The confrontations between Jessilyn and her ’stalker’ were handled extremely well. Never was there a truly contrived rescue; each incidence ended realistically.

With the setting and the young protagonist, this book was reminiscent of To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. The courtroom scene was a big contributor to this connection.

After completing this book, I went back and read the description again. There is a portion which states, “Escalating episodes of horrific violence ensue, including sexual attacks directed at 13-year-old Jessilyn Lassiter.” I do not agree with this description. I realize that ‘horrific’ may have different connotations for different people, but to me it implies blood and guts, which were not really part of this book. Also, the phrase ’sexual attacks’ implies rape or molestation when in actuality the ’sexual attacks’ were an adult male making a few rude, suggestive remarks to Jessilyn. This book could easily be read by young teens.

Character Development: 4 1/2 Stars

For the character of Jessilyn, this was also a coming of age story. Her character grew and matured throughout the summer setting as she entered her teenage years. She was both mature and childish, in turns, just like any young teenager. Her actions were right on target for someone of her age.

Gemma was not as well developed. I would have liked to have gleaned more of her personality through further, frank discussions with Jessilyn. Although Jessilyn was the main character, Gemma was such an important part of the book that she really should have had more depth.

Miss Cleta was my favorite character. She was a feisty, older, true Southern lady. She could bake beautiful desserts with one hand and scare off the bad guys with a shotgun in her other.

Writing Style: 5 Stars

I think it must be very difficult for an adult to write a book that is fit for young teens, while still being interesting to adults. Ms. Valent seems to handle this with ease. Her subject matter is a sticky one, yet it is handled with style and aplomb.

The dialogue was what I loved most in this story. I could easily hear these people talking. The South was in every contraction and lackadaisical sentence. It’s so much fun to read true-to-life dialogue that really puts you into the story.

Editing/Formatting: 5 Stars

Both were of professional quality.

Rating: PG for some Light Sexual References

———————————–

Being from the South myself, I could easily see the events in this book unfolding in real life. No, I’m not old enough to have lived in those times. LOL But, I did grow up in a backwards town when it came to racism.

I graduated High School in 1986 and my school still had segregated proms. Yes, that’s right, two proms: one for white people and one for black people. In case you are wondering, any Hispanics, Asians, and other nationalities were considered ‘white.’ This segregation continued until 1989.

Fortunately, as a child, I moved around a lot. Therefore, I never developed the ‘racist’ attitudes of the town I ended up in for High School. I am grateful for that. I would truly hate to be that ignorant.

———————————-

Here are some comments from the author, Jennifer Erin Valent:

How did you come up with the title?

That’s up for debate in my own brain, actually, because I can’t remember if I came up with the title first or with the scene the title came from. I should write these things down! But, I really think I came up with the title first because I had immediately wanted to include fireflies in the title and remember toying around with different ideas for a good while. Then I needed to work it into the story which comes in the form of a conversation between Jessilyn, the main character, and her father, Harley. The title fit the story well, particularly the theme, which speaks to standing out in the darkness.

How long have you been writing?

I started writing about 7 years ago when I finished a children’s book I’d
decided to give a try. After fooling around with writing strictly as a hobby for years, I finally finished something! And that got me hooked. I went on to write some articles and then decided to give novels a go, and that’s where I found my niche – in fiction.

Where did you get the idea for the novel?

I really just wanted to write a Southern novel since I have a weakness for Southern stories, having grown up in the South. But once I set it in 1932 and came up with a young white girl who is best friends with a young black girl, all the pieces came together for a story about racial prejudice.

Who is your favorite character?

I’d have to say Jessilyn, since I spend so much time with her, so to speak. It’s her voice that narrates the story, and I feel a connection with her character above all. But I also have a real affection for Miss Cleta, her elderly neighbor. She’s such a spitfire! I want to be her one day!

Biographical Information:

Jennifer Erin Valent is the 2007 winner of the Jerry B. Jenkins Christian
Writers Guild’s Operation First Novel contest for Fireflies in December. She lives in central Virginia where she has worked as a nanny for over fifteen years. A lifelong resident of the South, her surroundings help to color the scenes and characters she writes.

Fireflies in December, by Jennifer Erin Valent

¿Y si tu no piensas en mí? Si no soy tan importante como tú eres para mí… Siento que te hablo y hablo y tu no me escuchas, ¿qué no ves que aquí estoy? ¿por qué no me reconoces? ¿Acaso te desagrado? … ¿Te hago falta como tu a mí?… ¿Por qué sólo escucho eco?… Siento que te pierdo…y aún no te he tenido…y siento que no entiendes lo que digo…y tu si sabes como herirme, como decirme las cosas en dónde más me duelen…sí, vaya que lo sabes.. No sé por qué no se te ha ocurrido verte en el espejo y reconocerme…

I’ve been following various accounts of the MNPS rezoning trial. It seems part of the plaintiff’s strategy is to get the expert witnesses to cite the Smrekar and Goldring (two Vanderbilt profs) study about segregation in Nashville as much as possible. And then the defense responds by making sure the experts state they don’t know anything about Nashville in particular. So that leaves me wondering, why doesn’t the plaintiff get either Smrekar or Goldring to testify about their own work? They are local and are very much familiar with Nashville schools.

Det är inte utan att man tänker på Karl-Bertil Jonssons ord  fast omkastade “Att ta från de fattiga och ge till de rika” när man hör om borgerliga vanstyret av Stockholmsstad som innebär att resurser flyttas från fattiga till rika sedan ersättningssystemet till skolorna gjordes om efter valet. Det skriver Robert Mogert (S) oppositionsråd i Svd idag.

Robert Mogert (S), oppositionsborgarråd i Stockholm, talade på Vänsterpartiets KOLA-dagar tidigare i år. Den gången handlade det om svartjobb och kollektivavtal vid upphandlingar.

Borgarna räknar bara upp det allmänna anslaget och inte anslagen med social viktning. Medvetet vill borgarna försvåra för dem som redan har det svårast. På så sätt skapas ett ännu större tryck för ökad segregation. De välbärgade tjänar på att ta sin Mats ur skolan och flytta sina barn i skolor med välbärgade gelikar. Mogert skriver:

Eftersom det socioekonomiska anslaget innan valet uppgick till nästan halva budgeten för vissa skolor så innebär det att dessa skolors budget, givet konstant antal elever, bara ökat procentuellt sett hälften så mycket som i de skolor som knappt har något socioekonomiskt anslag alls.

Han fortsätter med en beskrivning av konsekvenserna:

Detta är frågan om en omvänd Robin-Hood-politik, där skattesänkningar finansieras genom att resurser tas från skolor i stadens fattiga områden. Med konsekvenser för såväl kunskapsresultaten för de enskilda eleverna som ökade klyftor, i ett redan hårt segregerat Stockholm.

Måtte inte Hallberg & Co. få chansen att göra samma sak med skolorna i Göteborg. Måtte socialdemokraterna inse problemen med privatskolor (s.k. friskolor) och skolpeng. Måtte Rossana Dinamarca (V) bli skolminister efter nästa val.

Intressant? Läs även andra bloggares åsikter om Robin Hood, integration, segregation, orättvisor, hycklare, rättvisa, skola, skolpeng, privatskolor, friskolor

An der Toleranzgrenze. In Osteuropa wachsen wieder Mauern. Dort, wo Zusammenleben scheitert, Vorurteile wahr werden und Lösungen Mangelware sind.

Es gibt Tage, an denen es Miroslav Blíchar vor der Fahrt zu seiner Mutter graut. Besonders zur Monatsmitte hin befällt den kräftigen 57-Jährigen meist eine Mischung aus banger Befürchtung und Zorn, sobald er in den Wagen steigt und die paar Kilometer zur alten Frau zurücklegt. „Sie haben dann schon die Sozialhilfe erhalten, bereits Alkohol, vielleicht auch Drogen zum Schnüffeln gekauft und wieder weiß Gott was angestellt“, erzählt Blíchar, als er das Auto vor dem kleinen, leicht rosa getünchten Haus der Mutter abstellt: „Aber heute ist zum Glück erst der 6., heute ist es noch ruhig hier.“

Hier, das ist Ostrovany, ein 1.700 Einwohner-Dorf im Osten der Slowakei, knapp 400 Kilometer hinter Wien. Und „sie“, sie sind „die Zigeuner“, wie Blíchar sagt, „die Zigeuner, unsere Nachbarn.“ Der gelernte Maurer zieht die weißen Gardinen zur Seite und deutet aus dem Fenster in den Garten: „Bitte, das ist unser Ausblick.“ Einige dutzend Meter entfernt, in einer leichten Senke gelegen, stehen etliche Holzverschläge. An die zwanzig Hütten, zusammengezimmert aus ein paar Brettern und Lehm, aus denen dichter Rauch weht. Es ist wie ein Blick zurück ins Mittelalter, unwirklich und doch so real.

„Die weiße Minderheit“ Der Blick fällt auch auf Betonblöcke: Weiß, massiv und übereinandergelagert, ergeben sie eine mehr als zwei Meter hohe und 200 Meter lange Barriere, eine Absperrung, eine Mauer – die Mauer von Ostrovany. Während sich dieser Tage tausend Kilometer entfernt Berlin darauf vorbereitete, dem Fall der Mauer vor 20 Jahren zu gedenken, fuhren in Ostrovany Bagger auf, um eine neue zu errichten. Was einst Ost und West trennte, soll hier, die zur Minderheit gewordenen „Weißen“ vor den, die Mehrheit stellenden „Schwarzen“, schützen.

Schwarz und weiß – in einer Gegend, wo der Ausdruck „Humanist aus dem Westen“ meist ein schlimmeres Schimpfwort darstellt als „Zigeuner“, sind dies auf beiden Seiten gebräuchliche Begriffe und noch das geringste Problem. Die wahren Probleme lassen sich zuerst in Zahlen ausdrücken. Im Osten Europas leben geschätzte acht Millionen Roma – allein in der Slowakei sind es mehr als 400.000. Die meisten von ihnen sind arm, arbeitslos und am Rand der Gesellschaft.

Doch die Zahlen geben kein Gefühl für die wahren Probleme. Aus ihnen lässt sich kein Zusammenhang ziehen zwischen Bettlerbanden auf Österreichs Einkaufsstraßen und dem, was Menschen wie Miroslav Blíchar in Ostrovany und anderswo berichten. „Rassisten schimpfen sie uns jetzt“, klagt er, „die feinen Herrn Minister aus Bratislava, die herkommen, vom Brücken bauen statt Mauern errichten sprechen und dann rasch wieder einsteigen in ihre abgedunkelten Dienstlimousinen, zurückkehren in ihre Villen hoch über der Hauptstadt.“

Blíchar ist sauer, steht trotzig hinter dem Haus der Mutter im Garten und deutet über die Mauer nach drüben: „Jahr für Jahr haben sie uns die Ernte gestohlen – Äpfel, Kartoffel, Tomaten, alles. Auch den Zaun haben sie abmontiert und beim Schrotthändler zu Geld gemacht – in drei Etappen, damit ich sie nicht anzeigen kann, denn alles unter 50 Euro gilt als Bagatelldelikt und wird von der Polizei nicht verfolgt.“ Was banal klingt, wird in Gegenden, wo eine Verkäuferin 300 Euro im Monat verdient und daher froh über die Ernte aus dem eigenen Garten ist, rasch zum Massenärgernis.

 Aufmarsch der Glatzen. Stille Wut über die wachsende Kleinkriminalität paart sich mit dem dumpfen Gefühl, von der großen Politik dafür bloß belächelt zu werden: Egal, ob in Tschechien, Ungarn oder eben der Slowakei – halb vermummte Männer in faschistisch anmutenden Uniformen wissen dergleichen gut für sich zu nützen. Als im Frühjahr ein jugendlicher Rom im Nachbardorf von Ostrovany eine Verkäuferin erstach und zwei andere einen Pensionisten halb tottraten, rief die rechtsextreme „Slowakische Gemeinschaft“ zum „Marsch gegen den Zigeunerterror“.

400 Glatzen kamen, freuten sich über reichlich Zuspruch der Bewohner und konnten nur durch ein massives Polizeiaufgebot daran gehindert werden, die Roma- Siedlung zu stürmen. Diese Siedlungen, sie sind eigentümliche Orte, versteckt, verstohlen, an den Rand gedrängt. Orte mit eigenen Regeln, Riten und Rythmen, fast unsichtbar, undurchschaubar und doch existieren in der Slowakei mehr als 800 davon.

Der Weg dorthin führt über matschige Pfade, schmutzige Wege, Trassen, gesäumt mit Müll. Abstieg in das Herz von Ostrovany, dorthin, wo zwei Drittel seiner Bewohner hausen. Der Regen wird nun stärker, das Gebell der Hunde lauter, der Rauch aus den Hütten dichter. Kleine Kinder, oft bloß Lumpen am Leib tragend, laufen umher. Sie lachen. Sie lachen inmitten der Apokalypse, spielen inmitten von Müllbergen, an einem Ort, der auf uns wie ein Vorhof zur Hölle wirkt. Aus den Bretterverschlägen dröhnt Musik, durch die Fenster schimmern Fernsehschirme. Der Strom, der sie betreibt, wird abgezweigt. Fließend Wasser gibt es erst weiter hinten, wo die Häuser gemauert sind und jene Alten leben, die im Kommunismus noch arbeiteten.

Einst zogen sie als Musikanten, Hufschmiede und Erntehelfer durchs Land, galten als „Kinder des Windes“, waren mal hier, mal dort. „Doch das ist Jahrzehnte her“, sagt Roman Conka, der eine monatliche Roma-Zeitung leitet, „mittlerweile haben ganze Generationen die Hoffnung auf Arbeit aufgegeben und sich an den Bezug der Sozialhilfe gewöhnt.“ Es sind unangenehme Wahrheiten, die er ausspricht und die jeder sehen kann, der aufhört, die Lage in den Roma- Slums zu idealisieren.

Wer die Augen öffnet, sieht Kinder, die bloß Lumpen tragen, während die Eltern in der Hütte teils vor Plasmafernsehern lungern. Er sieht Kinder, die kaum zur Schule geschickt werden, damit der „Vajda“, der Patriarch einer Sippe, später nicht die Macht über sie verliert. Und er sieht auch Paläste inmitten des Elends, gelb verputzt, mit einem BMW in der Auffahrt – das Domizil des „Wucherers“, jenes Menschen also, der Geld zu horrenden Konditionen verleiht und die Schuldner dann zum Betteln und Stehlen in die Hauptstädte Westeuropas karren lässt. Von „Rassismus“, „Diskriminierung“ und einer „neuen Berliner Mauer“ sprechen die Menschen hier und geben dem Bürgermeister die Schuld daran.

Der sitzt vor ausgebreiteten Plänen im Gemeindeamt und berichtet von seinem Scheitern. Von der „Aktivierungsarbeit“, mit der sich die Roma die Sozialhilfe aufbessern können, wenn sie dafür etwa ihre Siedlung säubern. Der Schmutz blieb, das Geld floss trotzdem – „denn ich habe auch ein Herz.“ Als Cyril Revák nach der Wende gewählt wurde, lebten 500 Roma in Ostrovany. „Heute sind es 1.200 und fast alle sind arbeitslos – wo soll das nur enden?“

Die Mauer ist sein Sieg und seine Niederlage zugleich. Er ließ sie errichten, „um die Diebstähle zu stoppen“ und wohl auch um jene Mitbürger zu besänftigen, „die mir jeden Tag vorrechnen, dass ein Rom mit sechs Kindern allein durch Sozialhilfe doppelt so viel ,verdient‘ wie ein gewöhnlicher Arbeiter.“ „So manches Vorurteil stimmt“, gesteht Journalist Conka ein, „aber dennoch sind Rassismus und Diskriminierung weit verbreitet. Die Beziehungen zwischen Weißen und Schwarzen sind derart angespannt, dass mittlerweile ein Tropfen reicht, um das Fass zum Überlaufen zu bringen – und dann hilft auch keine Mauer mehr…“

(Erschienen in NEWS 46/09)

Die ganze Story als PDF zum Download

I just read a really wonderful article at CNN.com called Crossing Racial Lines: Meeting Friends They Never Had.  It’s about the joint reunion of the segregated high school classes of 1959 in Macon, Georgia.  The reunion was the idea of Tom Johnson, who then wrote to everyone in the classes.  One of the things he said in his letter was, ”We had lived in a separate black and white world in Macon. … It is a different world today. We no longer are separated, except by personal choice.”  As a result, the classes came together for the first time, last month.  Regarding the conversations at the reunion:

Listening to his mother and her childhood friends, Cordell said, he was struck by how segregation was “was so transparent to them at the time they were living through it. It was a way of life, so they didn’t acknowledge its existence.”

“I find it interesting how human nature teaches you to accept things that are — and some people question the reality, and other people don’t.”

This reunion is such a testament to people’s ability to improve the world.  It is easy to despair at all that is still wrong, but stories like this show clearly how far we’ve come - in less than a lifetime!  We can go this much farther again, from where we are now!  Think what it will be like when we do.  We have so much more to do, until everyone is truly regarded as equal, but if we keep believing it can be done, we will do it.

To me, there is also a strong parallel between this and war.  War is as transparent to most people now, as segregated high schools were in the 1950s.  It is so much a part of our way of life we don’t acknowledge its existence.  It just has to be, though, that someday enough people will question the reality of war and see that it is a choice that we need not make, that we will not have wars anymore.  I imagine that another 50 years after that, people will look back on war and think, ”That is so wrong, that I can’t believe people seriously ever did that”.  The wrongness of war will be as clear to them, then, as it is now, to us, how wrong it was to segregate schools based on race.