It baffles me that this mis-conception about skinheads being racist is still being thrown around in 2013.

To this girl, and anyone else who is ignorant to the sub-culture, please bare in mind that the original skinheads were in fact apolitical, with many then becoming anti-racist/anti-fascist. The early British sub-culture combined elements of English mods and immigrant Jamaican rude boys. It wasn’t till BONEHEADS (named after exactly what they are) attempted to hijack the scene that this whole way of life became distorted.

(A black skinhead? Say it ain’t so!)

“Geography of Hate” map showing concentrations of hate-based tweets on Twitter from June 2012 to April 2013. (source: Floating Sheep)

“FBI experts believe the Internet continues to serve as the primary radicalization instrument, used to recruit teenagers and young adults into the radical skinhead movement,” the warrant says.

– A recently-released document by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reveals that Wade Michael Page was active on white supremacist websites and social media prior to his attack on the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek last August, in which he murdered six Sikhs, severely wounding another and a police officer who was the first to respond on the scene.

Ironically, even though the US Department of Homeland Security monitors keywords for other manifestations of extremism on social media sites, keywords used by white supremacists online that are associated with their movement are reportedly not monitored despite the common nature of such activity.

Read more about the FBI’s new release about Wade Michael Page here.

America the Beautiful

I will not shed a tear

When the end draws near

For America to crumble

When you cower in fear

You brought us here

To toil for free

Never leaving us be

To live in peace

Now you’re diseased

And in need of aid

What about our homes

And our lives

That you raid?

Don’t we matter?

Didn’t we bleed?

All you ever cared about

Were your needs

Screams unheard

Cries muffled

Oh, how we’ve tried

Oh, how we’ve suffered

You laughed with glee

Hung us from trees

Burned us alive

No thought to me and mine

While you lived and thrived

Smirking while we died

The old red, white and blue

Stained with my blood

Stuck like glue

In our neighbourhoods

Guns cocked and ready to blast

At my ancestors

Who were outcasts

Bodies dismembered

Hung from your walls

Traded at auctions

While you stood proud and tall

No…no…my eyes will be dry

When America falls

I look enthralled

While you bawl

You’ll stand there vexed

In your karmic hex

You had it coming

This you must know

Time to reap the benefits

Of what you’ve sewn

You’ll wonder why

I’ll not cry for you

My eyes will be dry

If you only knew

Goodbye, harsh land

Farewell, cruel man

I hope next time

You’ll know where you stand

You’re not I AM

Despite what you think

Maybe next time

You’ll stop and think

A world once fertile

Once green and strong

Now withers and dies

Barely holds on

My eyes will be dry

This I share with you

It’s time you know

It was never about you

Corruption everywhere

Both far and near

All you worship

Is the paper you hold dear

All you ever cared about

Is the gun and the blade

The blood diamonds

And the wealth that you made

Evil to the core

Always wanting more

Never satisfied

With who you are

A crack in your soul

Is how you were born

That’s why you’re

Always needing control

Nature has spoken

Goodbye to you

Your time is up

Your recompense due

Will I cry for you?

No…no…my eyes will be dry

Dry for America, dry for this soil

If you only knew

{I dedicate this poem for Jah, my one and all, my only, my Creator. Thank you for giving me visions of a very near future and comfort of what’s to come}

Former skinhead, Byron Widner, illustrated his hate through a series of derogatory tattoos all over his body. However, with the assistance of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), he was able to “leave the white power movement” and get rid of his inked imprints as said by the SPLC. The Southern Poverty Law Center monitors hate groups and other extremists throughout theUnited States as well as exposes their activities to law enforcement agencies, the media, and the public.

MSNBC ran a documentary entitled “Erasing Hate” which detailed Byron Widner’s road to redemption. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, this film provides viewers with an account of “his life within the white power movement, the decision that led him and his wife to leave it, and the procedures he received [ to remove the hate speech from his body].”

Research indicates that thousands of people every year are victims of hate crime. For every reported case of hate violence, there are countless unreported incidents of hate based violence. The hate crime phenomenon presents complex and agonizing problems to communities nationwide. The problem has become more visible as federal and state officials increasingly track hate violence.

American communities have learned that failure to address bias crimes can cause an isolated incident to result in widespread tension. Hate crimes are unique because they have a special emotional and physical impact that extends beyond the original victim. Bias crimes intimidate others in the victim’s community, causing them to feel isolated, vulnerable, and unprotected by the legal system. By making members of a specific group fearful, angry and suspicious, these crimes polarize cities and damage the very fabric of our society.

While hate violence makes headlines, the positive actions of people across the country are creating a different story. These people include but are not limited to a movement called Not In Our Town. Like other groups battling hate based violence, Not In Our Town highlights communities working together to stop hate. Not In Our Town videos and broadcasts highlight and celebrate people who have developed creative anti-bias programs and responses. The stories chronicled by Not In Our Town have served to motivate many others to develop their own innovative initiatives which overpower the hateful actions and voices in their communities.

The non-profit sector offers information, education, and activism against hate violence. This list contains a few of the organizations that offer resources or help communities respond to hate activities. Many of the national organizations have local chapters. A brief list of national organizations battling hate based include but is not limited to:

National Organizations

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
Web: http://www.adc.org
Combats media stereotyping, defamation, and discrimination against Americans of Arab descent through legal action and education.

American Jewish Committee
Web: http://ajc.org
Published, What to Do When the Militia Comes to Town

Anti-Defamation League
Web: http://www.adl.org
Combats anti-semitism and racial supremacist ideology, published Hate Crimes Laws: A Comprehensive Guide.

Asian American Legal Defense & Education Fund
Community education, legal counseling and advocacy on behalf of victims of anti-Asian violence.

Center For Democratic Renewal
Web: http://www.thecdr.org
Published When Hate Groups Come to Town: A Handbook of Effective Community Responses.

Center for New Community
Web: http://www.newcomm.org
Publishes special reports on anti-immigrant groups.

Choosing to Participate
Web: http://www.facing.org/
Traveling exhibition featuring events in time when individuals and communities made decisions affecting the course of history.

Connect America
Points of Light Foundation
Web: http://www.pointsoflight.org/sponsors/connectamerica.cfm
Sponsors national “Join Hands Day”

Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
Web: http://www.cair-net.org
Published, Law Enforcement Official’s Guide to the Muslim Community.

NAACP
Web: http://www.naacp.org
Combats racisms and fights for civil rights.

National Council of Churches
Web: http://www.ncccusa.org
Organized nationally to rebuild burnt churches in 1996.

National Gay & Lesbian Task Force
Web: http://www.thetaskforce.org
Fights hate crime; monitors attacks on civil liberties.

The National Urban League
Web: http://www.nul.org
Increasing civil rights, educational and financial opportunities for African Americans through programs and research.

Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG)
Web: http://www.pflag.org
Support for families of Gays and Lesbians with hundreds of local chapters.

Political Research Associates
Web: http://www.publiceye.org/
Think-tank monitoring the full spectrum of hate organizations.

Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Web: http://www.saldef.org/default.aspx?zone=misc.faq
Legal assistance and educational outreach for Sikh Americans. Civil rights advocacy.

Southern Poverty Law Center
Web: http://www.splcenter.org
Reports on hate crime and advances the legal rights of victims of injustice. Home of Klanwatch.)

StudyCirclesResourceCenter
Web: http://www.studycircles.org
Helps communities and organizations begin small democratic, discussion groups that can make significant progress on difficult issues including race.)

100 Black Men of America
Web: http://www.100blackmen.org
Helps young African Americans to overcome financial and cultural obstacles through mentoring, anti-violence, education and economic development programs.

Source(s): Southern Poverty Law Center; American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee; American Jewish Committee; Anti-Defamation League; Asian American Legal Defense & Education Fund; Center For Democratic Renewal; Not In Our Town; Center for New Community; Choosing to Participate; Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR); NAACP; National Gay & Lesbian Task Force; The National Urban League; Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG); Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund; Study Circles Resource Center; 100 Black Men of America.

Photo Credit: Microsoft Clip Art

Whiteness also has an enormous cash value. it is worth a lot of money to be white. As a systemic structured advantage, whiteness concerns interests as well as attitudes, property as well as pigment. White supremacy does not exist or persist because whites foolishly fear people with a different skin color. it survives and thrives because whiteness delivers unfair gains and unjust enrichments to people who participate in and profit from the existence of a racial cartel that skews opportunities and life chances for their own benefit. it externalizes the worst social conditions onto communities of color and provides whites with a floor below which they cannot fall

–George Lipsitz

(via Queering the Game of Life)

In The Wretched of the Earth, Franz Fanon says “[E]very generation must discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it…” Never has this quote seemed more relevant. As I look around my neighborhood, my city, my state, my country, and my world I am bombarded with the need for my generation to discover its mission. Everywhere I turn humanity is under attack. While this could be cause for trepidation I am uplifted by the passion of the countless people standing up and claiming their human rights to peace, love and justice. However, too many have, at best, acquiesced, and at worst colluded with the violence. Let me explain.

Earlier this year two young men were held accountable for raping a passed out female in Steubenville, Ohio. While many saw this as a step in the right direction (it wasn’t inconceivable that they would have been acquitted) it was accompanied by mainstream media’s over concern for the perpetrators while ignoring the victim and the effects of the rape on her. Shortly after, rapper Rick Ross caused uproar due to his misogynist, sexist, and violent lyrics promoting date rape. Many answered the voices calling for accountability, and it seemed to me that perhaps we could turn the corner; perhaps we had reached critical mass. This optimism was blunted a bit when in my city, Minneapolis, we had (the first of) our own rape culture controversy. A song was released titled “Ratchet Molly Party” which, for many, myself included, manifested the reality of rape culture. When women in the community via Real Life Athena called for accountability the response was one of elevated disrespect and violence. It was this response that caused me to reconsider my optimism. It seemed we were not as close to justice and equality as I thought. This was followed closely by the public sexual assault of Danny Brown at the Triple Rock nightclub. So many laughed about this, so many gave Danny props, he even bragged about not missing a bar. Yet, according to a member of his crew, he was not proud of it, and feels some kind of way about it. The reality remains he did not give consent, which means hundreds witnessed a sexual assault, and said nothing!  Hundreds were thrown face to face with the perverted role of masculinity in this culture: the whole men can’t be raped; he liked it, and other braggadocios arguments and expectations. We have yet to wrestle, publically, with what this all means. There are only a few voices, in the not so metaphorical wilderness of rape culture, calling for a critical discussion of this reality, and they have all been virtually ignored. Ratchet Molly Party, Danny Brown, Rick Ross, nor the two teens in Steubenville created rape culture, and they should not be the sacrificial lambs. They are simply manifestations of the culture we have allowed. The good news is we can and are doing something about it. We must continue.

While rape culture certainly poses a great challenge to my generation it is not the only one; nor is it the only issue where I remain hopeful we approach a tipping point. Last year the country’s outrage was responsible for George Zimmerman finally being charged in the murder of Trayvon Martin. While we can certainly find solace in that we must remember Oscar Grant’s murderer only served two years, and Marissa Alexander remains in prison. Any sort of optimism must also be tempered with the events of the last couple weeks: Assata Shakur’s addition to the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted Terrorists list and Kierra Wilmot being expelled from school.

Assata is the first female to make the list. She is also one of two Americans listed. To understand Assatas inclusion it is necessary to understand the Black Panthers, the FBI, and COINTELPRO . The Black Panthers, while being called terrorists by J. Edgar Hoover, were actually anything but. They provided services such as schooling and breakfast to their community, far from terrorizing the community they provided stability. They were dedicated to justice and equality; so much so that they exercised their 2^nd amendment rights (ironically, not supported by the NRA) to safeguard their efforts.They were true threats to the power structure in this country. The FBI proceeded to wage a war on the Panthers which included the murder of Fred Hampton. It is in this environment that Assata Shakur carried out her “terrorism,” which amounted to advocating for justice and not giving up her human rights. For these actions a 67 year old exile is being actively pursued by the United States government for, essentially, being a mirror upon which we dare not gaze. Amidst this fog of racial confusion the hands off Assata campaign sheds some light and offers the glimmer of hope.

Kierra Wilmot on the other hand is not a revolutionary; she is a high school student conducting a science experiment. When the experiment concluded she found herself being expelled and facing criminal charges. The school to prison pipeline in full effect! Not dissimilar to the 7 year old handcuffed in New York. Racial issues plague our school systems, for proof we need look no farther than the events in Minneapolis this last year: hanging of a black doll from a stairwell at Washburn High, a racially charged fight at South, and Hopkins High’s Ghetto Spirit Day.

Looking at the racial landscape leads to critical questions: What does it say that Mumia is still in prison? That we executed Troy Davis? It says the same thing about us that the “achievement” gap and school to prison pipeline, and the disproportionate foreclosures say. What does it mean that, with all things equal, if your name sounds ethnic (whatever that means) you are 50 percent less likely to get an interview?  What does it mean that Newtown was worthy of national outcry but the children of Afghanistan and Pakistan and other countries across the global south, who are being bombed by drones consistently, or  the children of inner-cities like Chicago are, largely, only worthy of our collective disdain with the violence chalked up to cultural pathologies.  The answer: black and brown lives are not worthy.

These things: white supremacy and rape culture exist against the backdrop of an economic system that by definition is anti-equality. Together they serve to justify, or at the very least, veil some of the greatest atrocities committed globally: drone strikes, Guantanamo, 2.5 million people in prison, privatized health care. While voices such as Michelle Alexander’s are ringing loudly in the ears of hundreds of thousands of Americans, it is time to reach the tipping point. There will be pushback such as the new study that found whites believe they are now the victims of  racial discrimination. There will be cases in the Supreme Court such as Fischer v. Texas, but all those things show me is that we are making progress and  must not stop. The time has come for my generation to push us over the edge, to realize our mission. It is time for us, similar to this year’s summer, to put an end to the long winter of inequality and arrive.

Full review here:

http://www.classactionsuk.com/blog.html

And here:

http://www.andycarrington.co.uk/antifacomments

Buy ANTIFA here:
http://www.andycarrington.co.uk/antifarevisededition

RODNEY A. ERICKSON, THOMAS W. CORBETT JR., GEARGE D.  GREIG, RICHARD J. ALLAN, RONALD J. TOMALIS, JENNIFER BRAUSTETTER, ALVIN H.  CLEMENS, MARK H. DAMBLY, PETER A. KHOURY, IRA M. LUBERT, PAUL H. SILVIS,  MARIANNE E. ALEXANDER, H. JESSE ARNELLE, STEPHANIE A. GARBAN, ANTHONY P.  LUBRANO, RYAN J. MCCOMBIE, JOEL N. MYERS, ADAM J. TALIAFERRO, DONALD G. COTNER,  KIETH W. ECKEL, SAMUEL E. HAYES JR., BETSY E. HUBER, KIETH E. MASSER, CARL T.  SHAFFER, JAMES S. BROADHURST, KENNETH C. FRAZIER, EDWARD R. HINTZ JR., KAREN B.  PEETZ, LINDA B. STUMPF, JOHN P. SURMA, CHARLES C. BROSIUS, WALTER J. CONTI, DONALD M. COOK JR., MARIAM U. BARASH-COPPERSMITH, ROBERT M. FREY, J. LLOYD  HUCK, EDWARD P. JUNKER III, ROGER A. MADIGAR, ROBERT D. METZGAR, BARRY K.  ROBINSON, L.J. ROWELL JR., CECILE M. SPRINGER, HELEN D. WISE, BOYD E. WOLFF,  QUENTIN E. WOOD, EDWARD P. ZEMPRELLI, NANCY GRACE, LETHAL INJECTION, DEATH  PENALTY, PENN STATE BOARD OF TRUSTEE, PENN STATE, JERRY SANDUSKY, JOE PATERNO,  PEDOPHILE, CRIMINAL CULPABILITY, ERVIN PETE WILSON, CANDACE RENEE WILSON, WENDY  GREUEL, LOUIS FARRAKHAN, PATRICIA SWINTON, TREVOR BENTLEY, MINISTER VAN  MUHAMMAD, WESLEY MUHAMMAD, SHERIFF LEE BACA, MARK ASHEN, STEVE COOLEY, KAMALA  HARRIS, ANGIE ALVORADO, JENNETT ALVERADO, CATALINA ALVERADO, MICHAEL LEWIS,  VALERIE LEWIS, REYNOLD MORGAN, FESIA A. DAVENPORT, MINISTER TONY MUHAMMAD,  ANTHONY MUHAMMAD, EVELYN L. WRIGHT, KAREN KIRKS, CALVIN CORDOZAR BROADUS, SNOOP  DOGGY DOGG, JIM REYNOLDS, LIZ QUESADA, RACHEAL SACRAMENTO (LASARA), CAPTAIN  KLOPP, TRACY BRYANT, SLAUSON LEARNING CENTER, EDGAR HURTADO, CONGRESSWOMAN  MAXINE WATERS, CONGRESSWOMAN JANICE HAHN, CONGRESSWOMAN LUCILLE ROYBAL-ALLARD,  COUNCILWOMAN JAN PERRY, CONGRESSWOMAN NANCY PELOSI, CONGRESSWOMAN LAURA  RICHARDSON, PAULA DANIELS, KEVIN JAMES, ERIC GARCETTI, MARY D. NICHOLES, BEVERLY  CROSBY, BONNIE PATTERSON, NANETTA ARCENEAUX, GEORGE KARAMIGIOS, TONY MUHAMMAD,  DANNY BAKEWELL, MAULANA KARENGA, JIM HAHN, BRIAN CUMMINGS, ALEX PADEA, MARQUEECE  HARRIS-DAWSON, NATE HOLDEN, EARVIN MAGIC JOHNSON, ANTONIO R. VILLARAIGOSA,  JACKIE LACEY, DON KNABE, ZEV YAROSLOSKY, MARK RIDELY-THOMAS, MICHAEL D.  ANTONOVICH, DIANNE FEINSTEIN, FBI DIRECTOR ROBERT MEULLER, WENDY GRUEUL, ZEV  YAROSLOSKY, BARBARA BOXER, NACEY PELOSI, PATRICIA SWINTON, BOBBY GRACE, BERNARD  PARKS, JUDGE SCOTT M. GORNON, STEVE COOLEY, KAMALA HARRIS, STEVEN J. GOLIGHTLY, FESIA A. DAVENPORT, RICHARD HOJIN KIM, STEVE SCHANOBLEN, PHILLIP S. SPABER AND  BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA, ERIC HOLDER, JUDGE MARJORIE S. STEINBEERG, COMMISSIONER  ROBERT B. AXEL, ROGER C. BROSSMAR, DAVIS R, GAFIN, MARIO A. GUERRA, FERNANDO  VASQUEZ, LUIS H. MARQUEZ, CHIEF RICK ESTEVES, ERIC GARCETTI, PAUL KORETZ, BILL  ROSENDAHL, ED REYES, PAUL KREKORIAN, DENNIS P. ZINE, TOM LABONGE, TONY  CARDENAS, RICHARD ALARCON, HERB J. WESSON JR., MITCHELL ENGLANDER, JOSE HUIZAR,  JOE BUSCAINO, JERRY E. POWERS, DR. PEGGY GUTIERREZ, GREEN DOT PUBLIC SCHOOLS,  ANIMO LOCKE 1, ERNESTO VILLARREAL, KAROLINA GAGE, MICHAEL PARK, PABLO DEPAZ,  KATHLEEN HICKS, STEVE WEINER, ELIANA MURILLO, ALBERT VASQUEZ-MEJIA, CHELSEA DUFFY,  AMY PULITER, PAUL BORST, LIDIA LARRAZABAL, ANTONY SOON TAN, RONALD M.  SCHILLING, WONIL YOON, AMIR VAFEE, ARMAN GHODS, NEGIN RAMESHNI, RANDY HIGASHI,  PARVIN SALKELD, MICHELLE ROA, ERIC M. ARGUELLO, ROBERT S. EOSMAN, DEPARTMENT OF  THE ARMY, U.S. ARMY H.R. COMMAND, STEVEN W. MOSS, PHILIP WOLFSON, SUSANA CAMPO,  HOLLY HAWKINS, MR. CHINOS, MINH HO, MS. MICHELLE, MS. FITZGERALD, MR. TATUM,  MS. FRANCE, G. MATT SAMS, BRAD S. DORRIS, DENISE MOHN, RICK RUIS, SYBIL BELL,  JANETTE ALVORADO, 52^ND STREET ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, HARBOR VIEW CENTER,  LAVERDIA MILLER, SIMPSON FAMILY MORTURARY, DR. HAROLD PEART, LAVERDIA  MILLER-BROUDON, JESSY BROUDON, YOLANDA PURDY, JAMES BOULDEN, JAMES MUHAMMAD, STEPHANIE  BOULDEN, CONNY B. MCCORMACK, JEANETTE EVANS, ROSALIND C. KOCHMANSKI, IRS, RABBI  YECHIEL ECKSTEIN, CONGRESSWOMAN MAXINE WATERS, CA STATE ASSEMBLY MEMBER GEORGE  NAKANO, LOS ANGELES COUNTY SUPERVISOR YVONNE BURKE, LOS ANGELES CITY  COUNCILMEMBER BERNARD PARKS, WOMEN’S CAMPAIGN FUND, WOMEN’S POLITICAL CAUCUS, LOS ANGELES AFRICAN-AMERICAN  WOMEN’S LAW PAC, LOS ANGELES YOUNG DEMOCRATS, MIMI ROBBINS, VICE CHAIR LA  COUNTY COMM., REGION 2, ST. ANTHONY GRAND LODGE, RON BROWN DEMOCRATIC CLUB, IBEW, LOCAL 18 WOMEN’S CAMPAIGN FUND, BISHOP E. LYN BROWN, REV. DR. WILLIAM S. EPPS, SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH, PASTOR WILLIAM SMART, PHILLIPS TEMPLE, CME, REV. EARL THOMPSON, REV. NORMAN JOHNSON, REV. JOEL ANTHONY WARD, REV. ROY PETTIT,  US SENATOR BARBARA BOXER, CONGRESSWOMAN JANICE HAHN, CONGRESSMAN-ELECT TONY CARDENAS, ASSEMBLY SPEAKER JOHN A. PEREZ, FORMER ASSEMBLY SPEAKER BOB HERTZBERG, FORMER ASSEMBLY MINORITY LEADER RICHARD KATZ, SENATOR ALEX PADILLA, SENATOR FRAN PAVLEY, ASSEMBLYMEMBER BONNIE LOWENTHAL, ASSEMBLYMEMBER FELIPE FUENTES, ASSEMBLYMEMBER NANCY SKINNER, ASSEMBLYMEMER RAUL BOCANEGRA, FORMER ASSEMBLYMEMBER BETSY BUTLER, LOS ANGELES COUNTY SUPERVISOR GLORIA MOLINA, FORMER CITY CONTROLLER LAURA CHICK, FORMER LA CITY CONTROLLER RICK TUTTLE, COUNCILMEMBER BILL ROSENDAHL, COUNILMEMBER JOSE HUIZAR, FORMER COUNCILMEMBER CINDY MISCIKOWSKI, LAUSD BOARD MEMBER NURY  MARTINEZ, NEW YORK GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO, SAN FRANCISCO DISTRICT ATTORNEY GEORGE GASCON, GISSELLE ACEVEDO FRANCO, PARA LOS NINOS, TANIA AGUILAR, LA VOZ LIBRE, SHERRI AKERS, KATE ANDERSON, MARLENE BANE, COMMUNITY ACTIVIST LARA BERGTHOLD, CAROLINE CARR, SAN FERNANDO VALLEY YOUNG DEMS, MARIA CASILLAS, FAMILIES IN SCHOOL, RAQUEL CASTANEDA, DINA CERVANTES, CALIFORNIA STATE STUDENT  ASSOCIATION, FRAN DIAMOND, LA REGIONAL WATER QUALITY BOARD, ANTHONY DUARTE, CDP REGIONAL DIRECTOR, KRISTIN EBERHARD, NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL, MONA FIELD, MARLENE GROSSMAN, MARILYN GRUNWALD, CDP DISABILITIES CAUCUS, RUBEN GUERRERA, LATIN BUSINESS ASSOCIATION, ALEX GUERRERO, VICA, TY HALEN, CSUN YOUNG DEMOCRATS, KELLIE HAWKINS, CINDY HORN, WENDY JAMES, BETTER WORLD GROUP, SUSAN LA VACCARE, JERILYN LOPEZ, MENDOZA, LA BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS, LINDA LUCKS,  VENICE NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL, WENDY MITCHELL, COASTAL COMMISSIONER, IRMA MUNOZ, MUJERAS DE LA TIERRA, MARY D. 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In a ‘post-race’ country like America where nothing and no one is racist, where people are more likely to believe in UFO’s than in institutional bias, which does back flips to obfuscate the operations of white hegemonic power and therefore ensure its continuance, anyone seeking to expose white supremacy or battle it is in for some serious uphill. You will be attacked. You will be censured, usually by your own community. People will say that you are obsessed with race and that even mentioning white people in the context of white supremacy is itself racist. These days the average person doesn’t even have to be taught not to bring up white supremacy. Here in our country, as in Mordor, everybody knows not to say the dark lord’s name.

–Junot Diaz, Facing Race 2012

(via Queering the Game of Life)

Caucasian man

“You know what I’ve been thinking?”

That was the loaded question my blogger buddy asked me the other day.

“No, what?”

“That racism should be classified by the medical world as a mental illness. I mean, it defies logic, reason and debilitates the individual. Think about it. Haven’t you heard of whites who have stated that they would rather die than to have a black doctor care for them? What about that case in the news where the man put up a note that no black nurses are allowed to care for his newborn baby? Remember that poor lady who screamed for help to find her kids when Sandy struck Long Island and that white man slammed the door in her face? Don’tcha think that it’s a sickness to hate someone to the point of murdering them when they’ve done no harm to you…I mean, even if you can’t live with yourself afterwards…it’s like they can’t help it?”

Her words were potent and made me think.

“Well, that would mean that Dr. Wright was correct then, wouldn’t it?”

“What did he say again, Truth?”

“That white people know the difference between right from wrong but they do not care,” I explained.

Since I began to seriously study racism and its origins, all signs point to the Caucasian construct. It was their construct that single handedly obliterated this entire planet by creating a caste system. It was their racism that spawned what I like to call The Racial Progeny: Sexism, Colourism and Feminism. It was their insecurity of their own lack of melanin that cause the extermination of indigenous groups throughout the diaspora. It was their rules and regulations that caused the ripple effect that Mother Nature has been trying to correct for thousands of years. It was their insatiable greed based on white superiority that polluted the minds of every living person on earth, including its victims, to the point where programs called Sensitivity Training and Diversity Awareness are now mandatory in most workplaces.

But…mental illness?

Hmmm…I’ve written about Projection Syndrome and how they are filled with self-loathing so they must niggerize us lest they self-destruct. But calling them mentally ill? Wouldn’t that let them “off the hook?”

What do you think? Are white people mentally ill?

Man holding Nazi-era sign at rally for David Duke. Translation is “The Jew: War Agitator. War Perpetuater.” New Orleans, LA, July 4, 1991

I’d already been thinking a lot about the Ku Klux Klan when the publication of Anthony Karen’s new photo book, White Pride, was announced. When slavery and the Civil War ended, the Klan swept in to preserve the South’s social, political, and economic order by terrorizing the newly freed, who might have been tempted to exercise their new rights. Karen’s gentle comments to an interviewer about the “pro-America” folks who flock to the group and its white supremacist brother/sister organizations struck—actually hammered—a nerve.

I remember photographing “Dukefest” in 1991, on the Fourth of July no less, in New Orleans. Louisiana state legislator David Duke—also founder of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and the National Association for White People—was firing up a campaign for governor. The shape-shifting Duke was as slick as goose excrement, playing up his equal-rights-for-downtrodden-whites rhetoric and downplaying his Nazi uniform-wearing and Klan-klothed days. Some of Duke’s adherents, however, didn’t get the play-nice-for-the-camera memo. They did what they could to jostle the out-of-town reporters, spill beer on us. Thankfully, the cops knew the drill and prevented anything untoward from happening. They made it safe enough for Danny Schecter, me, and other non-Aryans to document the scene: a crowd of white folks barbecuing and gamboling at the center of City Park in one of the blackest (as in African Americanest) cities in the U.S.

David Duke at a campaign event during his run for Louisiana governor. New Orleans, LA, July 4, 1991

Duke was a manipulator, if not the most masterful one. He wasn’t urbane (or smart) enough to sanitize himself so he could slide into the mainstream of the Republican party. (There’s only so much scrubbing you can do to get rid of the stink of fascism.)

Duke appealed to a swath of disaffected, poor white folks who believed that affirmative action and other programs designed (sometimes poorly) to mitigate discriminatory practices and policies were the stake in the heart of their dreams.

But it would be condescending, one might say racist, to assume that Duke’s stalwart supporters didn’t know of his fascist roots. There were (and still are) plenty of conservative groups that don’t wave the flag of racism and anti-semitism. So one might assume that a fair portion of Duke’s followers were attracted to these very things in his barely concealed past.

I’m looking forward to seeing Karen’s book. I want to know if the photographer sees and works both compassionately and critically. I have no doubt that his subjects’ individuality and the circumstances of their lives may be interesting, even compelling. But a book focused on members of America’s oldest terrorist organization must also explore its subjects’ relationship to the Klan’s legacy of hate, brutality, and murder—a legacy they have chosen to embrace. Otherwise, it’s simply environmental portraiture—or propaganda.

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

With slavery redefined and sanctioned as “a punishment for crime,” the nation thereby maintained the legality of the system while promoting the fiction of emancipation. The existence of free black people in the U.S. has always been viewed as a mortal threat to white supremacy. Therefore, under cover of law, millions of African Americans were forced back into servitude in the decades after the Civil War. Racist police forces operating in tandem with racist and corrupt judicial officials and municipal courts systematically re-enslaved blacks with the tacit approval of the federal government—which followed an unwritten policy of allowing the states to decide cases involving peonage (forced servitude). The retention of involuntary labor policies and practices thus devastated the lives of African Americans, particularly those living in the South. For example, by 1908, of the 1.1 million African Americans residing in Georgia approximately half were living under the direct control and force of whites. Forbidden to move or seek different employment, the post-slavery generations of black southerners found themselves trapped in this new form of enslavement until the early 1940s.

The 1940s marked a decisive change in US government policy not as a result of a sudden concern for the injustices being done to African Americans, but out of fear of enemy propaganda about US racism during WWII. To protect the image of the nation abroad, the Justice Department and the FBI began to investigate charges of involuntary servitude and prosecute offenders. In 1948 the entire federal criminal code was revised, and by 1951, as the Cold War was coming to a boil, the US Congress passed several statutes making any forms of slavery in the U.S. a crime.

Douglas A. Blackmon, the Pulitzer prize winning author whose book provided the basis for the PBS documentary shown below, uses the label “Slavery by Another Name” to describe the laws enacted specifically to maintain white supremacy and black subservience following the Civil War. Scholar-activist Michelle Alexander refers to the more recent variation of neoslavery—the emergence of the prison industrial complex in the post-Civil Rights era—as The New Jim Crow. Taken together, and with other recent studies by Loïc Wacquant, David M. Oshinsky, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Robert Perkinson, and others, these works show clearly why we cannot relegate slavery to the distant past.

“Slavery by Another Name” provides stark evidence of our continued failure to recognize and address the history of slavery in this nation. It exposes the ghosts in our blood that infect and haunt each generation as it goes forward in ignorance of the past and its consequences for the future.

To view a previous post I made about “Slavery by Another Name,” which includes an excellent interview of Douglas A. Blackmon by Bill Moyers, click here.

While I realize the obvious ignorance by groups like the KKK and/or white supremacists, so do other white people. But it’s interesting that they don’t seem to realize how entitled their words and actions really are. I can’t stand it when another white person tells me, “it’s just a joke” or “get over it, it’s ancient history”. It’s not ancient history. We don’t have to look too far back to understand that it’s not at all ancient history.

A few days ago I read an article about white people lacking empathy for people of colour, here’s a link to the article, and all I could do after reading it was stare at my ceiling for an hour. I couldn’t shake the feeling off. It was the same feeling I got the time my brother and I were stopped by a cop because my brother didn’t “appear” to be the owner of his car. When the officer told us to get out of the vehicle and looked at us, I knew he had already made up his mind about who we were, without having asked us a question. It’s a look of pure disgust, like we are somehow beneath him and nothing but delinquent immigrants. News for you though, we’re all immigrants.

Which also makes me wonder why Columbus Day still exists. What on earth are you celebrating? The colonization, mass murder, and cultural genocide of the indigenous populations of North America? Why do we still speak about Native people as if they don’t exist anymore? Why are there people still “dressing up” as Natives on Halloween or wearing Native head dresses in music videos (ugh)?

Sometimes I hear things like: “I’m so black – I listen to ______.” or ”I’m the blackest of my friends.” and I have to wonder what part of that is okay. NO. You’re not black, you don’t have ANY idea what it means to be black. Your perception of what it means to be black is offensive and ignorant. You don’t carry any of the weight associated with being a marginalized minority, so don’t appropriate it to your life. Appropriation! Ugh! Your idea of what it means to be black or brown is like men telling women what they can and cannot do with their bodies.

And it hasn’t stopped in the media either. News outlets, music videos, magazines, tv shows, etc – all perpetuate terrible stereotypes. I don’t think there’s a major news outlet in the west that talks about minority issues than the white counterpart. There is more value placed on white lives than people of colour. We see it time and time again, the most recent being that of the Boston bombing. While it’s a terrible tragedy, there are people dying all the time. But you will never hear about the violence in poorer neighbourhoods – the amount of kids who died today in south central LA – because they aren’t white.

We feel empathy for white people because all we see are your stories. Nobody cares that the same day there was a bombing in Boston that killed 3 people, there were bombs going off in different parts of the world, that killed hundreds… or the dozens that were killed in cities all over the US that day.

It puts people of colour in a strange position, because saying anything critical about white people gets reactions, BIG reactions. But we just have to take it. Even for that one person of colour in a crowd of white people, if a racist joke is made, what position does that one person take? They’re forced to take it as a “joke”. My favourite is “Im not racist but…” – be ready for some ignorant shit is basically what you’re saying. Or “you’re not like other brown people” – tell me, since you know so much about brown people, what a brown person is like?

Mia McKenzie wrote a great piece (highly recommend) on everything I’ve been feeling but couldn’t articulate. And it’s pretty much exactly what this post was trying to convey – privilege, and how that affects people of colour. White people aren’t going to talk about this because it doesn’t affect them. They don’t have to address the issue of being… because they can just be.

But I have to.. everywhere I go.

• Mother Jones – TIMELINE: Deinstitutionalization And Its Consequences – by Deanna Pan [CN: mental health, stigma]
• Policymic – College Rape: Does the Media Focus Only On White Survivors? – by Wagatwe Wanjuki [CN: rape, privilege, white supremacy]
• Huffington Post – Beltane 2013: The Great Poetry of Flesh – by Teo Bishop [CN: human bodies, sex]
• Reality Check – Administration Again Fails on Over-the-Counter Emergency Contraception – by Jodi Jacobson [CN: sexism, contraception, anti-choice rhetoric]
• Shakesville – Why Isn’t There More Coverage of the West Explosion? – by Jessica Luther [CN: classism, greed, wealth inequality, images of destruction, racism, disablism]
• The Friendly Atheist – The Problems with Male Circumcision: An Interview with the Producer of American Secret – by Hemant Mehta [CN:  circumsion, female genital mutilation, health problems, sexism]
• The Pantograph Punch – An Open Letter to Rakhi Kumar, Beyonce-Hater: Your Feminism Is Not My Feminism by Maddie Collier [CN: body policing, slut shaming, sexism, misogyny, human trafficking, sex work]
• Scientific American – Florida teen charged with felony for trying science by DNLee [CN: racism, classism, sexism, explosions]
• The Militant Baker – Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls… SO I WILL. by Jes [CN: body positivity, fat acceptance, body policing, shame, self-loathing]
• Think Progress – How Teaching Kids To Accurately Identify Their Genitalia Can Help Prevent Sexual Crimes by Tara Culp-Ressler [sexual assault, sex crimes, human bodies, body positivity]
• Gay Star News – A gay dad challenges Mike Huckabee to shoot some hoops – by Rob Watson [CN: homophobia, discrimination]

Enjoy!

FORT WORTH, Texas AP — North Texas prosecutors say a man who’s admitted to sexually abusing more than 30 boys and acts of bestiality involving animals has been sentenced to life in prison.Todd William Mitchell was found guilty by a Tarrant County jury of violating court orders he was told to follow as part of a sex offender treatment program. Prosecutors say the jury deliberated for 15 minutes Wednesday before issuing the maximum penalty.The 55-year-old Mitchell had six prior felony convictions for abusing children and had served at least 15 years in prison. Upon his most recent release in 2011, he was ordered to live at a facility in Fort Worth and undergo counseling. Authorities say he repeatedly violated the order, including by being a voyeur. The violations prompted the trial held this week.

via Prosecutors: Sexual predator given life sentence – SFGate.

In Kürze: Schon wieder ein Blogpost (ganz kurz) aus der Serie “Ich raffe Eure Gegensätze nicht”.

Naja, zunächst denke ich mir: blöd dass ich als prinzipielle Abstinenzlerin diesen Link angeklickt habe, ohauerha. Ich mag auch nicht wirklich gross was aufdröseln versuchen, dazu hab ich auch grad keine Energie übrig. Was mir aber so auffiel ist das da:

“Es sind ja eben solche akademisch-mittelschichtigen, die feministische Linguistik zwanghaft noch im breitesten Biertischgespräch gebrauchenden (und zugleich meine kurdischen und persischen Freund ausgrenzenden) StudentInnen gewesen, aus deren Gesellschaft ich damals geflüchtet bin, und zwar in die Gesellschaft von Geflüchteten hinein.” (Zitat Che, Direktlink dazu)

Schönes Wortspiel, aber davon abgesehen, und das schien mir so in mehreren Postings in verschiedenen Blogs und auch in der “Critical Whiteness Debatte” in Deutschland 2012 ein wenig so zu laufen: Es wird wieder mal so einsortiert in “Geflüchtete, die total locker und selbstironisch sind und die _echte Probleme_ haben und keine Zeit für so Pillepalle wie “Alltagsrassismus”" und “Critical Whiteness-Linke StudentInnen, die total verwöhnt und überakademisch mit _eingebildeten Problemen_ Pillepalle statt den _echten_ Rassismus (TM) thematisieren.”

Folgerichtig nennt Che dann auch die Leute, die er so kennt “realiter Diskriminierte” (die “Anderen” sind dann nur eingebildet diskriminiert).

Diese Unterscheidung sagt doch am meisten über diejenigen aus, die sie unbedingt machen müssen. Ich raffe sie nicht. Ich komme zu diesen Critical Whiteness-Geschichten nämlich andersrum als Che: Ich hatte mit Geflüchteten zu tun und Jahre mit Geflüchteten zusammengelebt, und durch die Perspektive, die bei mir dadurch ganz schön zurechtgerückt worden ist, komme ich ja dahin, in “kritischem Weißsein” und der Beschäftigung damit eine große Chance zu sehen.  So abstrus und akademisch-lebensfremd finde ich kritisches Weißsein gar nicht, im Gegenteil, ich befasse mich (leider sehr langsam und schleppend) gerade theoretisch damit und erinnere mich an Dinge, die Schwarze geflüchtete Freunde seinerzeit sagten, deren Tragweite ich damals noch nicht erfassen konnte, aber wo der Groschen jetzt, beim Theorie “nachbüffeln” erst so richtig fällt.

In dem Buch “Mythen, Masken und Subjekte. kritische Weißseinsforschung in Deutschland” gibt es den “vierstimmigen Prolog” der Herausgeberinnen, darunter “Ein Schwarzes Wissensarchiv” von Maureen Maisha Eggers. Darin schreibt sie, dass subalterne Schwarze Subjekte schon lange vor der “kritischen Weißseinsforschung” Weißsein erforscht und Wissen darüber gebildet und weitergegeben haben. Sie schreibt: “Schwarze Menschen haben Weiße immer ganz genau – wenn auch unauffällig (…) observiert, taxiert und analysiert”.

Das ist vielleicht ein akademischer Text, und ich habe einige Sätze darin mehrmals lesen müssen, bis ich sie halbwegs verstanden habe, aber da gehts nicht um akademische Dinge, sondern um die Realität von Menschen, die sich in einer Gesellschaft befinden, wo Weiße Macht über sie haben. Ich lese diese Dinge und sehe darin die Vorgänge beschrieben und analysiert, die damals zwischen weißen Linken und Schwarzen Geflüchteten im scheinbar “Privaten” abgegangen sind. Und wie sich das anschliesst an Dinge, die ich von Schwarzen Menschen  gehört und gelesen habe, und wie das gar nicht zwei verschiedene Bereiche sind, der “alltägliche Rassismus” und die “realiter-Diskriminierung a la Che (=Diskriminierung von Geflüchteten)” und wie es vielleicht gar nix gebracht hätte, sich vor den “lästigen Diskursen” in die Gesellschaft von Geflüchteten zu flüchten, weil da die Diskurse genauso fällig sind. (Ich könnte mir heute noch bei dem Gedanken in den Arsch beissen, dass einige dieser weißen Linken bis heute noch denken, sie hätten den Geflüchteten damals doch gut geholfen und alles wäre chic gewesen. Letztendlich war der Kram nur innerhalb einer Mediation thematisierbar und diese hat auch nur bewirkt, dass ich den gelaufenen unbewussten Rassismus einmal kurz thematisieren durfte, ohne kollektiv in den Boden gematscht zu werden, bzw. die Mediatorin hat die aufkommende Empörungs-Stampede dann gestoppt. Aber geschnallt hat trotzdem keiner was.). Vielleicht stört die meisten auch nur ein bestimmter Kommunikationsstil oder eine bestimmte Szene-Umgangsweise. Aber Critical Whiteness ist weder ein Kommunikationsstil noch eine Szene-Subkultur und wenn, dann soll sich diese Szenesubkultur ein anderes Wort dafür suchen was sie macht.

Dann verlinke ich am Schluss die Texte, die vor dem von Che in der Reihenfolge kommen (und die eh jede_r kennt, nehm ich mal an) und die ich gut fand:

• Über Critical Whiteness und andere Mißverständnisse von Azadê
• Critical Whiteness – wieso eigentlich diese ganzen Diskussionen von Momorulez