Category: DEI

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Today – Support NYC bill abolishing grand juries in police killing cases at press conference

This message from Lawrence Hamm of the People’s Organization for Progress. Sounds like an excellent event to support.

Friends,

Assemblyman Charles Barron is going to have a press conference tomorrow 11:30 am to announce that he is going to introduce a bill to abolish grand juries in cases that involve the killing of unarmed civilians by police in the State of New York. He has invited POP to participate. I am asking that as many members, friends and supporters of the People’s Organization For Progress as possible attend this press conference, stand with him, and show our support for this piece of progressive legislation. The press conference will take tomorrow, Monday August 17 2015, 11:30am at New York City Hall, near 250 Broadway in New York City, New York. Get there early because it takes time to get through the security at the gate of the park in which the City Hall is located. The press conference will start promptly at 12 noon. Assemblyman Barron is sponsoring this bill because too often grand juries fail to indict officers who have killed unarmed civilians when there is clear evidence of wrongdoing. Also, I am proposing that we call for the introduction of similar legislation here in New Jersey. As you know Assemblyman Barron was a strong supporter of the Million People’s March that was recently held in Newark, NJ and has been a supporter of POP over the years. Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend so I need as many of you there as possible to represent the organization and show our support. Thank you. Power To The People!!! read more

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Thousands join mayor’s Occupy the City rally on Saturday to support Newark, youth & to stamp out violence

Mayor Baraka and CommonLed by Rapper-activist-actor Common joined Mayor Ras J. Baraka, the Newark Municipal Council and actor-rapper-activist Common, thousands of Newark residents united to “Occupy the City” on Saturday, August 8, meeting at a designated location in each of Newark’s five wards at 3:30 pm and marching to the City’s historic downtown “Four Corners” at Broad and Market Streets for a huge anti-violence and community support rally.

Building on the success and support from Newark residents during his “Occupy the Block events, Mayor Baraka hosted the “Occupy the City” event to unite residents against despair, violence, and crime in Newark and to promote love, hope and empowerment. “Occupy the Block” is a community engagement tool modeled after the historic “Occupy” movement, which advocates the social disruption of harmful or ineffective social constructs. Marchers wore purple t-shirts specially made for the occasion. read more

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When police become revenue agents to keep towns fiscally solvent

cash-strapped-cityThe community policing model becomes completely distorted when policeman – the civil servants you’re most likely to see and interact with in the course of a normal day – are turned into revenue producing instruments by the cities they work for. When a police officer’s job depends on whether s/he can generate enough revenue to keep his employer out of bankruptcy, a lot of people are going to be unhappy. And some of those unhappy people are going to be people grievously harmed, or excessively fined, for behaviour that shouldn’t be a big deal. read more

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POTUS will lead in reversing climate change & healing the world

Obama announcing Clean Power PlanSpeaking via live feed from the White House today, a visionary President Obama announced his administration’s new Clean Power Plan, which has been created to reverse climate change and help heal our world of the effects of global warming. The President joined Pope Francis in calling for global citizens and industry leaders to make immediate and sweeping changes in how we live, work and do business.

“There is such a thing as too late, when it comes to climate change,” the President commented, and pointed out that 14 of the hottest years in over 100 years of recorded history have occurred in the past 15 years. read more

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Obama at Georgetown on breaking the cycle of poverty. Real talk.

Obama at Georgetown Poverty SummitAt the Georgetown University #PovertySummit President Obama made some very real comments, tying his own background to modern society’s challenges in the areas of education and social investment; access to jobs, internet, transportation; mentoring, youth, fatherhood, families and community:

I am a black man who grew up without a father, and I know the cost that I paid for that. And I also know that I have the capacity to break that cycle, and as a consequence I think that my daughters are better off … For me to have that conversation does not negate my conversation about the need for early childhood education, or the need for job training, or the need for investment in infrastructure or jobs in low-income communities… read more

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Exploitation by the light-skinned a tradition in the Dominican Republic and Ted Cruz’ Cuba

Slaves dance on Cuban plantationSen. Ted Cruz is an elitist Cuban-American, representative of Cuban plantation owners who imported and exploited African slaves for generations. A lesson plan from PBS’ Black in Latin America feature shows that by persecuting Haitians the Dominican Republic is simply following Cuba’s tradition of persecuting dark-skinned workers once the workers have been exploited to breaking point. This is the Cuban history:

When revolution broke out in the French colony of Saint Domingue (later known as Haiti), sugar production there came to a virtual halt. This caused a sudden demand for sugar. Cuban plantation owners quickly stepped in to fill the gap created by neighboring Haiti, placing Cubans in a position to profit immensely. By the mid-1800’s, Cuba replaced Haiti as the world’s leading producer of sugar, making Cuban plantation owners very wealthy. Sugar is a very labor intensive and the increased pressure to fill market demand for this lucrative crop resulted in a high death rate among slaves. Plantation owners responded to the labor shortage by purchasing more slaves thereby reinvigorating the Transatlantic slave trade even after the British sought to curtail it. read more

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Joint Economic Committee Releases National Report on Economic Challenges Facing African Americans

MLK on balcony

WASHINGTON – African Americans face an unemployment rate double that of white workers and are nearly three times as likely as white Americans to live in poverty, according to a new report by the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee (JEC) released today by Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), Ranking Democrat on the JEC, and Congressman G. K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC).

The report reveals that African Americans continue to confront a range of economic challenges, including disproportionately high rates of poverty, unemployment and long-term unemployment as well as significantly lower incomes and slower wealth accumulation than white households. When examining various measures to determine economic well-being, the report finds black Americans lag far behind the white population. read more

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The important US holiday not many people know about: Juneteenth

Texas JuneteenthHappy belated Juneteenth! This little known holiday celebrates the announcement in Texas by Major-Gen. Granger’s statement on 19 June 1865 that slavery had come to an end.

On 20 June 2006, Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee made a statement to Congress about the importance of recognizing and celebrating this holiday. This is the text of her speech:

JUNETEENTH

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise to acknowledge the World Refugee Day as we keep the flame of hope alive, showing some 20.8 million internally displaced refugees fleeing persecution who are now looking to the world to ask for relief. read more

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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

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Christie’s dismal record on union/labor rights just got worse

Christie, sweeney, bookerChristie has assaulted vulnerable New Jersey residents and labor rights all the years of his governorship. Next City shares the low-down on what Christie’s gotten away with, and how he’s done it.

Take public education: having promised when he was campaigning to take care of New Jersey’s teachers, after getting into office Christie proceeded to systematically destroy public ed, along with teachers’ and students lives and the bloodshed is far from over. Newark and Camden have been among the communities hardest hit. read more

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Feel-good social analysis fails to show how real change happens

the wire hbo image
HBO’s The Wire (Photo courtesy of HBO)
Through analyzing what’s wrong with The Wire, Dave Zirin takes a hard look at what is missing altogether from supposedly progressive TV shows that supposedly delve into the social injustices that are screaming for attention all across the US recently. Interesting read. Dave says:

I always shoved it to the back of my mind when my friends in Baltimore – I live about 45 minutes from the city – almost uniformly would tell me they either did not like or would not watch the show. People were hostile toward The Wire for a multiplicity of reasons. Some felt it was like gangster rap for a more sophisticated audience, glorifying black-on-black hyper-masculine street violence while selling itself as somehow more literate and ennobling to consume. My friend Mark once pissed me off fiercely when he told me that my favorite show was “NWA for people who read The New Yorker.” read more

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Prison to Whole Foods Pipeline: artisanal foods crafted by inmates

Prison work in progress
Flickr: kathrynsdays / Via Kathryndays Flickr
Fortune publishes the oddest stuff. This intriguing article covers the burgeoning artisanal food prison business, thriving because its labor force is prison inmates that earn – get this – 60¢ an hour. Although, Colorado Corrections Institute director Steve Smith points out, a whole $3-400 a month can be earned with incentives (emphasis mine). Naturally, the prison industry itself profits handsomely from these relationships as middleman and overseer, making it pretty clear what has been driving Big Money’s strategy to lock up 1% of the United States population. The US is returning to a slave labor model … and calling it “help” for prison inmates. UK politics professor Genevieve LeBaron says, read more

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Obamas celebrate Native American youth with website & tribal gathering

Generation Indigenous
The White House launched its new Generation Indigenous (Gen-I) portal to serve as a one-stop shop for Native youth.

The Gen-I initiative focuses on improving the lives of Native youth through new investments and increased engagement. This initiative takes a comprehensive, culturally appropriate approach to ensure all young Native people can reach their full potential. Gen-I will help improve the lives of Native youth by promoting a national dialogue and policies and programs to mobilize and cultivate the next generation of Native leaders. Key programs address: education, health and nutrition, juvenile justice, housing, and youth engagement. read more