What Bernie & followers face now: thoughtful reporters take a 360º look

candidate didn't win
Source: Suffolk University/USA Today poll
Record reporters Herb Jackson & Christopher Maag take a look at the choices facing Bernie Sanders and his supporters following big end of primary season losses in delegate-heavy states California and New Jersey. I’m quoted in the article:

But some Sanders supporters in New Jersey say they are sticking with him.

“I’ve been a loyal Democrat all my life, but at this point, I’ll tell you the truth, I may resign from the Democratic Party after this election,” said Kim Wei of Fair Lawn, who with her son, Ivan, was on the ballot as a Sanders delegate. read more

To reduce fraud, we need impartial election oversight – immediately

Rosario Dawson on Young Turks
Source: The Young Turks
In a Young Turks interview with Rosario Dawson, Linda Sarsour & political analyst Nomiki Konst, Nomiki tells how Iowa college students at an Iowa college she visited were barred from participating in their local Democratic caucus. At 7pm the doors were closed, excluding 400 students who had patiently waited on line for four hours to select their party’s presidential candidate. The caucus location selected this year was much smaller than previous years’ locations and only a small number of would-be caucusers could be accommodated. read more

Almost 1 in 100 jailed in US

Almost 1 in 100 Americans behind bars

Here are a few quotes and visuals to help us see what the United States’ almost 1% incarceration rate looks like – a phenomenon the ACLU condemnsin its new report Banking on Bondage: Private Prisons and Mass Incarceration.

The imprisonment of human beings at record levels is both a moral failure and an economic one …

US incarceration rates 5 times world averagerefers to the reality that 750 people out of each 100,000 residents in the United States are being jailed. In mathematic terms, that equates to .0075% of our population (3/4 of a percentage point) meaning that it comes way too close to being 1% of our population (1 person out of every 100). read more

PBS & TED review the state of education today

Malcolm London at TED

Malcolm London at TEDThe Chicago Tribune has a fabulous article on PBS’ TED Talks Education hour long show on May 8 2013, which brought

… together a diverse group of teachers and education advocates delivering short, high-impact talks on the theme of teaching and learning. You’ll also see Chicago’s Malcolm Xavier London performing a spoken word poem about the racial and class tensions he experienced … London, who just turned 20, is a terrific fit for TED — which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. The nonprofit organization bills itself as being devoted to ideas worth spreading and often features people who have taken unorthodox paths giving talks about what they’ve learned read more

Voting Rights Timeline in the US

Voting rights in the US are closely tied to other important social issues: the right to own property, First Amendment free speech rights, rights to assemble and to be the master of one’s own destiny. These resources show when the right to vote was obtained by various populations of American society.

Timeline by Center for Democracy

Timeline by the ACLU in graphic format and as a pdf file

The voting rights timelines does not address two other serious voting rights issues being played out in the US: using felony disenfranchisement as a mechanism to prevent Black men (plus some women) and Latinos from exercising their voting rights, which has become a type of apartheid in these communities. Michelle Alexander writes about this in her book, The New Jim Crow and the concerted Republican effort put in place since the first GWB election in 2000 which seeks to purge legitimate voters from voting rolls in targeted communities and otherwise restrict voting rights across the country. read more

To students of real history, corruption doesn’t look worse today

People who believe widespread social problems are new to the United States come from ethnic backgrounds of privilege, or didn’t learn true history at home or in school. A Facebook friend and Green Party member thinks he is trying to explain to me that ethnicity does not affect a person’s belief about whether there is more corruption today than in the past. But, what Mark is really doing is demonstrating that he hails from a background where White male privilege is so much part of his personal culture that he is unaware that any other reality exists. read more

Learn how to avoid falling victim to voter disenfranchisement

The League of Women voters is sponsoring a forum in Newark on Wednesday, June 27 2012 at the Newark Public Library’s Main Branch, 5 Washington Street, Newark NJ. You will learn about nationwide efforts to trample voting rights and what you can do to protect yours. Ryan P. Haygood, the national NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund director, will discuss his group’s legal work to protect voting rights. Here’s the background on why it’s so important to become educated on these measures and take pro-active steps to ensure that the vote you wish to cast next November will be both fairly and accurately counted. read more

Brainwashed to mistrust

Dear G-d, this is such a powerful statement on the chilling effects of racism. Whether we choose to believe it or not, each of us is truly a product of the messages disseminated through our society and popular culture. That’s why it’s so important to expose ourselves to the least possible propaganda: avoid malls and shopping centers, watch less TV, do not frequent commercial websites. Have more f2f conversations with people. Walk and bike more. Get involved with your communities.

… I hadn’t realized it but I was crying. I must have been crying as he spoke to me. I thought about what it was that was making me so sad and I guess it was the recognition that I cannot escape the effects of our culture’s demonization of young black boys. I, who spend so much of my time in the presence of these young men, have internalized racism. Of course, I know this intellectually but it is something quite different to be called out on one’s internalized oppression and to have to face the fact that I am just like everyone else in America: I am afraid of the “criminalblackman” (a term that Kathryn Russell has coined). The “criminalblackman” mindset is pervasive and entrenched. The idea of young black men as being “problems” is a historical fact that has infected every institution in the country as well as infiltrated individual hearts and minds.” read more