Crews remove Baltimore’s Confederate statues overnight

Crews removed Baltimore’s four Confederate monuments quickly and quietly in the dark of night.

…On Monday night, the City Council cited events in Charlottesville, Virginia, when it adopted a resolution calling for the immediate destruction of Confederate monuments.

The mayor said the City Charter gives her the authority to act as a matter of public safety. …Local protesters vowed on Sunday to tear down the Lee and Jackson statue if the city didn’t act. The mayor said there are more appropriate places to put the statues,

“There are Confederate cemeteries here in Maryland. There are Confederate cemeteries all across the nation where people have inquired about them.”

The mayor suggests plaques take the place of the statues to explain what used to be there and why they were removed.

…[Mayor Pugh] said removal began around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday and ended around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, and she watched the process in person. The monuments have been taken somewhere outside the city, but it was not specified where.

The mayor did not get permission from the Maryland Historical Trust to remove three of the statues; however, under the circumstances, the trust said it will work with the city to relocate the statues and restore the sites.

 

Crews remove Baltimore’s Confederate statues overnight

nicely done, Baltimore

Hurt and Angry, Charlottesville Tries to Regroup From Violence 

And at City Hall, a planned news conference by Jason Kessler, the white nationalist who organized Saturday’s rally, came to an abrupt end when a man wearing a plaid shirt punched him.

“Jason Kessler has been bringing hate to our town for months and has been endangering the lives of people of color and endangering other lives in my community,” the man, Jeff Winder, said in an interview later. “Free speech does not protect hate speech.”

Hurt and Angry, Charlottesville Tries to Regroup From Violence – NYTimes.com

Well, I would have said free speech does not protect you from the consequences of people hearing what you say and reacting to it but, still, you go, Jeff Winder! Punch all the Nazis. Every single Nazi. Every single time.

(And if you want to split hairs about alt-right vs. white nationalist vs Nazi? You’re missing the forest for the trees.)

Maimonides hospital in one of the most diverse places in the US – Business Insider

I went to Maimonides and learned how ethnic and religious diversity affects healthcare and what doctors need to consider as the populations they serve change.

…When he arrived 41 years ago, diversity meant having Orthodox Jews and other Jews in the same space. Jablon, who is Jewish, said his main job was to get them all to get along.

…That’s all changed. Maimonides is located Brooklyn’s Borough Park, a neighborhood that’s still home one of the largest Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish populations in the US, but also new immigrants from China and the Arab world. Adjacent communities served by the hospital are predominantly Latino or home to European immigrants.

…It’s not just about dealing with language barriers. Our cultural backdrop affects how we talk about illness and death, and our ethnicity can make us more prone to develop diseases like diabetes or certain cancers, and the doctors at Maimonides have to think about every way they engage with new or different communities — all the way down to how they decorate.

Maimonides hospital in one of the most diverse places in the US – Business Insider

hmmm

Students Stood Up To A White Nationalist March in VA

“Tell me again how today’s college students are scared snowflakes.”

A Small Group Of Students Stood Up To A White Nationalist March And People Are Lauding Them As Heroes

Go VA students!

Louisiana assistant police chief resigns in disgrace after sharing racist meme on Facebook

The text accompanying the image read: “When your daughter’s first crush is a little negro boy.”

Louisiana assistant police chief resigns in disgrace after sharing racist meme on Facebook

What idiots don’t understand about the first amendment and free speech is that it protects your right to say things, it doesn’t protect you from the consequences of people hearing that shit you said.

Plus, this guy is a developmentally delayed dinosaur who shouldn’t be working with the public, let alone in law enforcement.

Ruby Bridges, the Little Black Girl Who Desegregated New Orleans Schools, Is Only 62. Let That Sink In. 

…After exhausting all stalling tactics, the Legislature had to relent, and the designated schools were to be integrated that November. Fearing there might be some civil disturbances, the federal district court judge requested the U.S. government send federal marshals to New Orleans to protect the children.

On the morning of November 14, 1960, federal marshals drove Ruby and her mother five blocks to her new school. (biography.com)

 

 

Only one teacher, Barbara Henry, agreed to teach Ruby. …Ruby was the only student in Henry’s class, because parents pulled or threatened to pull their children from Ruby’s class and send them to other schools. (bigraphy.com)

 

Ruby Bridges, then.

 

Ruby Bridges, now.

Ruby Bridges, the Little Black Girl Who Desegregated New Orleans Schools, Is Only 62. Let That Sink In. – Watch The Yard

Crazy, right?!!!

Who Pissed In Racist Trump Cuck Stephen Miller’s Kibbles This Morning?

They let Stephen Miller out of his cage to talk about Trump’s new racist immigration proposal. It did not go well.

“Glenn, maybe we’ll make a carve-out in the bill that says the New York Times can hire all the low-skill, less-paid workers they want from other countries … THEN WE’LL SEE HOW YOU FEEL …”

…Another journalist asked, “Will the Trump Organization stop bringing in foreign workers on visa programs to set an example for other businesses?” NAH, that’s different. NEXT!

…There was a bunch more pissy back and forth, with Acosta subtly hinting at how …racist this new policy is…

…ACOSTA: It sounds like you’re trying to engineer the racial and ethnic flow of people into this country.

Who Pissed In Racist Trump Cuck Stephen Miller’s Kibbles This Morning? | Wonkette

hmmmmm

Booker introduces bill to legalize marijuana nationwide

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker is proposing a far-reaching bill that would both legalize marijuana at the federal level and encourage states to legalize it locally through incentives.

…The bill would legalize marijuana at the federal level and withhold federal money for building jails and prisons, along with other funds, from states whose cannabis laws are shown to disproportionately incarcerate minorities.

Under the legislation, federal convictions for marijuana use and possession would be expunged and prisoners serving time for a marijuana offense would be entitled to a sentencing hearing.

Those “aggrieved” by a disproportionate arrest or imprisonment rate would be able to sue, according to the bill. And a Community Reinvestment Fund would be established to “reinvest in communities most affected by the war on drugs” for everything from re-entry programs to public libraries.

Booker introduces bill to legalize marijuana nationwide

hmmmm

White House adviser Stephen Miller, CNN reporter Jim Acosta clash over immigration

White House adviser Stephen Miller sparred with CNN reporter Jim Acosta on Wednesday, heatedly debating the immigration proposal backed by President Trump just hours before.

…What you’re proposing and what the president is proposing does not sound like it’s in keeping with American tradition when it comes to immigration,” Acosta said. “The Statue of Liberty says, ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.’ It doesn’t say anything about speaking English or being…a computer programmer.”

White House adviser Stephen Miller, CNN reporter Jim Acosta clash over immigration

hmmmm

Former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio convicted of criminal contempt 

Joe Arpaio, a former Arizona sheriff whose extreme stance on illegal immigration made him a household name, was convicted Monday of criminal contempt of court for ignoring a judge’s order to stop detaining people because he merely suspected them of being undocumented immigrants.

U.S. District Judge Susan R. Bolton wrote that Arpaio had shown a “flagrant disregard” for the court’s command and that his attempt to pin the conduct on those who worked for him rang hollow.“

Not only did Defendant abdicate responsibility, he announced to the world and to his subordinates that he was going to continue business as usual no matter who said otherwise,” Bolton wrote.

… In 2011, the then-sheriff of Arizona’s Maricopa County was enjoined by U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow from detaining people he thought to be illegal immigrants, when they were not charged with any other crimes, as part of a lawsuit. Prosecutors alleged that he continued to do so, and last year, the Justice Department decided to pursue a criminal contempt-of-court case against him.

…his policy of detaining people on mere suspicion was racist and illegal, and his refusal to honor a court’s order to stop was brazen.

Bolton wrote that another judge’s order to Arpaio was clear and that there was evidence he violated it willfully — citing some of Arpaio’s own public comments as evidence. She said even if subordinates actually did the detaining, it was only at Arpaio’s direction and by Arpaio’s failure to tell them otherwise.

Former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio convicted of criminal contempt – The Washington Post

Only the worst people on the planet deserve jail time more than this guy.

Cultural Appropriation: Whose culture is it anyway, and what about hybridity?

Insisting that certain types of clothing, activities, food, etc, can only be worn, mastered or enjoyed by certain peoples can only serve to divide and alienate. Condemnation of dreadlocks on non-blacks, yoga [practiced] or taught by non-Indians, Chinese food chefs who aren’t Chinese, can never reduce or end racism, because the reason for racism isn’t appreciation, adoption and interest towards other cultures, but ignorance, [ostracization] and othering of them. Telling me that only I can openly and without challenge celebrate Chinese New Year or wear qipao or teach Chinese cookery …can only serve to promote the idea of me as an exotic other, or Chinese stereotype, as things deemed to be culturally ‘mine’ become off-limits to anyone not Chinese, or at least East Asian. 

… But even if I grew up all my life in China, or amongst the Chinese community, celebrating every festival and going to Chinese cram school, the very fact of this should only, ideally, give me knowledge that I can enjoy and share, rather than withhold. …How can one not be ignorant if one isn’t allowed to appreciate, experiment and learn without fear of attack?

…I can totally understand the desire to want to reclaim what was mocked and ban anyone else from enjoying it just because it became cool ‘when white people did it’ — but that won’t help. …Only greater mixing of cultures, experimentation and fusion can, as it [normalizes] what’s seen as other and makes it seem less weird or threatening or icky.

…The media so often serves up the products of other cultures through white vessels in the belief that it makes them more palatable or desirable, but we should challenge that through calling for more diverse representation.

…Another big problem with the arguments against cultural appropriation is that it suggests that there is some kind of inborn cultural essence, possessed by everyone from any given race; a concept that is not only critically flawed, but also all but erases the existence of hybridity.

…If I had a child who looks more European than Asian, can they safely wear traditional Chinese clothes? Can their children? Should we not be rather alarmed at the idea that people are now judging and deeming others not black or Asian or whatever enough to access certain cultural practices…?

…In Japan currently there is a great push towards selling clothes made using traditional Japanese techniques, but with new and [modernized] (and [hybridized]) designs to appeal to modern Japanese and global consumers, in order to prevent these skills from dying out. Protests against cultural appropriation such as the one at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts’ kimono event last year do not consider that, by complaining that  trying on kimonos should be off-limits to non-Japanese visitors, they are depriving skilled craftsmen and women in Japan of a potential market to keep their techniques alive (the [protesters] were largely not Japanese themselves, incidentally).

…I find it interesting, incidentally, that so many of these discussions seem to have come from, or are based on, an assumption of race and cultural dynamics as they currently are in America. …the dynamics are often very different. People aren’t discriminated against along the same lines, and the cultural stereotypes that have caused problems and divisions are different.

Cultural Appropriation: Whose culture is it anyway, and what about hybridity?

hmmm

Mother of African-American student files lawsuit after her daughter was named ‘co-valedictorian’ alongside white student with ‘lower GPA’

An African American woman has filed a federal lawsuit against a Mississippi school district, claiming that a white student was named “co-valedictorian” alongside her daughter, despite the white student having a lower grade point average (GPA).

Mother of African-American student files lawsuit after her daughter was named ‘co-valedictorian’ alongside white student with ‘lower GPA’ | The Independent

hmmm

When Black Hair Violates The Dress Code

For wearing their hair in braids, two teenagers were threatened with suspension at their charter school. Similar incidents show that strict dress codes can punish students for their racial identity.

…According to Colleen Cook, administrators at Mystic Valley have routinely reprimanded black students for dress code violations involving hair.

Other black girls have been pulled out of class, she says, lined up, asked if they had hair extensions and given detention if they did.

Colleen remembers when one student, who wore her hair in its natural texture, was taken out of class and told that she would need to relax, or chemically straighten, her hair before returning to school the next day.

In defense of their daughters, the Cooks brought in a yearbook to show school leaders the many white female students with hair extensions and dyed hair.

But, the Cooks say, the administration didn’t see that those students were in violation of the dress code, stating those hair alterations weren’t as obvious.

…”I feel like the school is pushing us to raise them as white children, but that’s not who they are or who they’re going to be.”

When Black Hair Violates The Dress Code : NPR Ed : NPR

Criminalizing being black starts at an early age. I hope the Cooks sue the school into stone age. If the school system insists on disrupting the education of young people who happen to be black, then in all fairness everyone else’s education needs to be disrupted as well.

‘Guns are fine — racism is not’: Armed redneck lefties are waging a different kind of war on Fascism

: ‘Guns are fine — racism is not’: Armed redneck lefties are waging a different kind of war on Fascism

hmmmm.  Somewhat akin to the work done by SHARP* skins.

* SHARP = skinheads against racial prejudice.  Beating people up may not be everyone’s cup of tea but most people can agree that giving racists a taste of how they treat others is a good thing.

Inside Israel’s Secret Program to Get Rid of African Refugees 

They were promised asylum somewhere closer to home. Then they were discarded — often in a war zone.

None of the things Israeli authorities had promised the 12 Eritreans when they had agreed to relocate to Rwanda a few weeks prior. Instead, John offered to smuggle them into neighboring Uganda, which he told them was a “free nation.” “If you live here, you can’t leave,” Semene recalled John saying of Rwanda. “It’s a tight country. Let me advise you, as your brother, you need to go to Uganda.”

They would need to sneak across the border, since they had no proof of legal entry into Rwanda. (The Israeli laissez-passers had gone unstamped at the Kigali airport the night before, an oversight that now felt suspicious.) But John told them not to worry; he could easily get them into Uganda for a fee of $250. “I have everything,” he said. “Contacts with the government over there. Contacts with the Israeli government. If something happens, I call the Israeli government and they do something for you.”

The alternative, John said, was to remain in the Kigali house, where they would be under constant surveillance. They would have to pay rent, but without documentation, they would not be allowed to work. Semene and the others understood that John was not really giving them a choice. 

Inside Israel’s Secret Program to Get Rid of African Refugees | Foreign Policy

Disgusting but not so surprising from a government who seems to prides itself on how much more racist, opressive, and abusive it can get each year that passes.