That disgusting hand sign #45 likes to make – is the sign for White Power

#45's White Power Hand Sign
#45’s White Power Hand Sign Source: independent.co.uk

What is our degenerate non-leader doing in this picture? Right, you guessed it – something disgusting. His hand sign consists of forming the letter W with three fingers and P with the circle of his thumb and index finger and the line that is formed by the base of his thumb.

This is a symbol for White Power. And the president of the United States makes it openly. God help us.

Trevor Noah talks about his book on growing up in apartheid South Africa and inviting Tomi Lahren to The Daily Show

Trevor Noah on The Breakfast Club
Source: The Breakfast Club via YouTube

Trevor Noah speaks on The Breakfast Club about his autobiographical book on growing up knowing his birth – as a biracial child – was a crime in apartheid South Africa … a place where his mother had to dress as his nanny in order to be able to walk down the street with him.

Noah shares his questions and opinions on Donald Trump and speaks about his decision to invite Tomi Lahren to be his guest on The Daily Show. One reason for doing it was to have the chance to be heard by her audience, who otherwise would never learn anything about him. read more

Trump Day 1: hate-based attacks, pussy-grabbing, threats – documented on reporter Shaun King’s Twitter feed

Shaun King
Source: Shaun King video clip screenshot
NY Daily News reporter Shaun King is doing something very courageous and important: documenting attacks and reports of hate incidents made by Trump supporters.

"Almost all white people except for educated white women chose Donald Trump in droves &that's a problem"- @ShaunKing pic.twitter.com/1GajQn8WLV read more

Teacher helps students come to terms with the police murder of a classmate’s father

terence crutcher
Source: scarymommy.com
On 21 September, Rebecca Lee shared her experience on Facebook of helping the children in her school process and come to terms with the shooting death by a police officer, of Terence Crutcher. Crutcher was the father of a student at the Tulsa, Oklahoma school where Rebecca Lee is a literacy coach and writing teacher and ten other students at the school were related to him.

Crutcher was shot after his car stalled in the road and arriving police decided to brutalize and kill him, instead of offer him assistance. The white, woman police officer who murdered Mr. Crutcher has been charged with manslaughter. read more

The “Model Minority” Myth victimizes all People of Color – including Asian-Americans

AAm Model Minority
Source: APSA via reappropriate.co
I love Kim Tran’s post about the difficulties of teaching Asian American Studies to students who have swallowed the “Model (Asian) Minority Myth” hook, line and sinker and fervently believe in it entitled, “Asian Americans Aren’t ‘Basically White’.” reappropriate.co pulls this myth apart too:

The Model Minority Myth — which, let us remember, is a myth — was invented for this explicit purpose: its first appearance in the American political zeitgeist was in a 1960’s New York Times Magazine article (“Success story: Japanese American style”) as a reference to Japanese American immigrants who overcame discrimination through alleged “perseverance”, in stated contrast to African Americans who were focused on overcoming discrimination through political action (i.e. the Civil Rights Movement). In other words, the Model Minority Myth has always been a fiction invented by Whiteness and has always been used as a cudgel to denigrate, belittle, or dismiss African American efforts to agitate for political equality, while simultaneously appropriating and limiting the roles that Asian Americans can politically inhabit. read more

Kristof: It’s not easy for white Americans to own the advantages systemic racism gives them

Nicholas Kristof
Columnist Nicholas D. Kristof, at 2010 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland
© World Economic Forum
swiss-image.ch/Photo by Monika Flueckiger
In Half the Sky, Nicholas Kristof and his wife and co-author Sheryl WuDunn told the stories of women oppressed by prostitution slavery – or just oppressive sentiment concerning women – in Asian and African countries. Now they are focusing on the disparities and injustice in American society that have been created by gender and wealth disparities and that favor people with certain racial or ethnic backgrounds, a project (and book) they call A Path Appears.

In a 2014 article, WaPo’s Emily Badger interviews Kristof on the topic of systemic racism: how it affects its victims and why it’s so difficult for white Americans to see that their advantages cause other people to be disadvantaged. read more

Ben Carson is after white approval & votes, not for #blacklivesmatter

Ben Carson dinosaur wrangler
Photo source: DonkeyHotey on Flickr
Ben Carson’s not trying to win over the black vote. He has his eye set on courting conservative white people. US News quotes university professor David Lublin:

When he argues that the black community needs to reject government handouts and the Democratic Party’s “welfare state,” Carson offers “validation for positions held by [white] Republicans” that structural racism doesn’t exist, or are uncomfortable with a black president insisting it does … He’s a Republican. He speaks at conservative forums, which are mainly forums for white people. Certainly black Twitter isn’t rushing to gush about Ben Carson. read more

Many stories in play behind U Missouri protests, football team boycott threat & president resignation

U Missouri Race Issues
Source: found at local8now.com
ABC provides good framing for Pres. Wolfe’s resignation from University of Missouri: The Concerned Student 1950 campus group named for the year “the first black student was admitted” began a month-long series of protests that culminated in a list of demands calling for Wolfe’s removal…

.. as a part of a protest over the way the university handles racial harassment … (including a request) for a comprehensive racial awareness and inclusion curriculum, and an increase of black faculty and staff. read more

10 ways well-meaning white teachers bring racism into schools

cultural sensitivity components
Photo credit: uvm.edu
I’m blown away by this great list of 10 ways well-meaning white teachers bring racism into schools. Number 2 is my favorite:

2. Being ‘Race Neutral’ Rather than Culturally Responsive

In my work with teachers, I sometimes meet teachers who claim that they “don’t see Color,” both in naïve attempts to be “progressive” but also in an ill-advised attempt to avoid tracking students based on race/ethnicity.

But our students don’t need a “race neutral” approach to their education. read more

Haitians in the DR: genocide by exclusion & statelessness

We regret to inform youA tragedy of epic proportions will unfold in the Dominican Republic this week (15 June 2015), unless a miracle happens. Yet around the globe politicians, clergymen, public figures and We The People are by and large, not talking about it.

Friends, let us pray for Haiti. Let us talk about the plight of people on Haitian descent on both countries in the island of Hispaniola: God, please deliver the people of Haiti and those of Haitian descent who have been living in the Dominican Republic. Keep these people well! Bless them with good food, comfortable shelter and the means to rebuild their lives and make Haiti a strong and proud nation once again. read more

Lion King Crew’s I Can’t Breathe Challenge

Lion King cast singing
I Can’t Breathe Challenge featuring the Cast & Crew from Disney’s The Lion King Nat’l Tour

While the national dialogue around #ICantBreathe #BlackLivesMatter is being framed, it’s important to remember that racism hurts all people in a society: those who practice it and those victimized by it.

Let’s make 2015 the Year of The People and take our world back.

Michael Jackson’s banned 1995 song about racism “They Don’t Care About Us”

Michael at prison lunchD.B. Anderson tells us about the suppression and history of “They Don’t Care About Us”, the anti-racism song Michael Jackson wrote and recorded two years after being strip-searched by police in 1993.

“They Don’t Care About Us” was denounced by The New York Times even before its release, and did not reach much of its intended audience because the controversy caused by the New York Times article would go on to overshadow the song itself. Radio stations were reluctant to play it and one of the short films Jackson created for the song was banned in the US read more

J4J report shares important data about attacks on public ed – Death by 1000 Cuts

School closings across the USA

School closings across the USA
The Journey 4 Justice Alliance has issued an important new report entitled Death By A Thousand Cuts which includes the number and location of school closings not previously gathered together by any major organization or media portal. It discusses the racist motivation of the misnamed “education reform” movement; the injustice that investor-based charters represent – institutions which are publicly funded but privately controlled; and is a must-read for any person interested in education equity. read more

Black Bruins say UCLA admits just a small number of Black students – for sports wins

A Yale Daily News reporter provides the essential background for this video decrying the starkly racist policies of UCLA, one of the United States’ largest colleges.

Last week, Sy Stokes and 11 other black male students from UCLA uploaded a YouTube video of a spoken word poem called “The Black Bruins.” The poem attacks the university for its lack of racial diversity, specifically its incredibly small percentage of black male students. Overall, only 3.3 percent of the male population of UCLA is black. Of the 2,418 entering male freshmen, only 48 were black. read more

Racism in the national Charter School Movement is not new

Charter schools represent resegregationWhat’s known today as the Charter School Movement is not new. The concepts that drives it were born prior to 1954, when students of color won the right to equal education through the historic lawsuit, Brown v. Education, which ushering in the desegregation of schools throughout the country. What we are seeing today is simply a big step forward being taken by racists with money and power to re-segregate schools and make sure that Brown and Black students receive inferior educations.

These 1%ers want to make certain that public schools will never produce another brilliant Barack Obama. And, they want to make sure they get hold of the money public schools’ budget and buildings represent. read more