Racial, Economic & Gender Justice

For many years, today's date in U.S. calendars seemed to be an odd, cynical juxtaposition of politically and socially-inflected observances: Presidents' Day, right in the middle of Black History Month. One the one hand, white powerful men were being honored at the same time as those who had fought enslavement, dispossession, and imprisonment at their hands. That is, it felt an oxymoron until the dramatic election of Barack Obama. The new issue of The New Yorker magazine brings us back to the thrilling feelings many of us felt one year ago at Obama's inauguration -- when Rev. Joseph Lowery closed the momentous program with a stirring invocation -- through an extraordinary photo spread honoring African Americans leaders (or their descendants) of the civil rights movement.

I live in the mid-Hudson Valley, technically “up North.” I often visit my mother who is currently living in a nearby nursing home.  I used to have conversations with one of her co-residents, (I’ll call her Mrs. P). Mrs. P is an elderly white woman who likes to tell “humorous” stories about black people and white people that most often include thinly-disguised racist stereotypes. Frankly, I’ve grown tired of them. She seems to unconsciously have a thing about ethnicity. I say ‘ethnicity’ rather than ‘race’ because both religion and science agree there is only one race – that being the human one. But I digress.

A few days ago I attended the screening of No More Smoke Signals, a film by the Swiss filmmaker, Fanny Brauning, and the discussion that followed with Native American musician and activist, Tiokasin Ghosthorse. Shown at the Fellowship of Reconciliation in Nyack, NY, the documentary of life on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota focused on the high energy of KILI Radio, the information hub connecting American Indian people across hundreds of miles. KILI radio, (Kili means “awesome” to the Lakota), broadcasts traditional and contemporary music and the personal, social, and political tragedies and celebrations of the people. The title derives from an almost toothless Indian gazing at the radio tower and commenting that we need radio because there’s “no more smoke signals”.

Progressive activists have made comprehensive immigration reform a top legislative priority in the 2010 Congress. A key reason is the rapidly increasing harassment of immigrants. Different cultural communities are being targeted by governmental officials as well as nativist activists. Arab and Muslim peoples have experienced such discrimination since 2001, of course, but it is expected to increase in the wake of recent terrorism threats to the U.S.

Last week in Washington, new strict screening regulations against travelers from 14 so-called "terrorism prone nations" were enacted. To be carried out by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Obama administration's decision was condemned by Muslim Public Affairs Council as "religious and ethnic profiling at its worst."

Together with more than 100 other national organizations and several hundred regional and local groups, the Fellowship of Reconciliation last week called on the Obama administration to end a controversial program that has been accused of widespread racial profiling and anti-immigrant bias. The 287(g) program, implemented by the Department of Homeland Security during the Bush administration, grants to state and local law enforcement agencies the power of federal immigration enforcement authority, and the program has been accused of serious civil and human rights abuses.

Facilitated by the Detention Watch Network and the National Immigration law Center, the following sign-on letter, to which FOR was a lead signatory, was released on August 27th. The text of the letter follows.

The President
The White House
Washington, DC 20500

God and democracy failed in New Orleans. While religious communities rushed to respond to Hurricane Katrina with charitable contributions and volunteers, some of the most powerful religious voices in the country used Hurricane Katrina to espouse a grotesque theology. Two days after Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, Columbia Christians for Life, a Religious Right anti-choice organization, put out a statement claiming that the satellite image of Hurricane Katrina looked like a six-week old fetus:

Stupid is as stupid does. It’s a cliché. Calibrate? I prefer the bluntness of the truth.

The fact and act of the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. in his own home by a police force presumably sensitive to the issues of race and power is worthy of continuing reflection and commentary. There may not be much to learn that’s new, but there is a good deal to be reminded of about the way racial stereotypes and triggers produce regrettable outcomes. Outcomes that reflect on-going prejudice and inequality; fear and ignorance in some white Americans and a tragic anger in some black Americans.

I was fascinated by many of the opening comments delivered today in the U.S. Senate hearings for the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. It seemed that one could quickly discern the tacts that many senators will take in their questioning and examination of the candidate for associate justice of the court -- and indeed what their vote will ultimately be.

Gays Are the New Niggers: 40 years after the Stonewall riots, what Bayard Rustin means for American democracy

Those who declare “Gay is the New Black” want to link the gay rights movement to the civil rights movement. Yet the slogan is full of internal contradictions and historical incongruities. Comparing the experiences of black folks and gay folks in the U.S. has outraged intellectuals, religious leaders, and politicians inside the black community.

It has outraged, for instance, Rev. Irene Monroe. She identifies three cardinal sins of whiteness plaguing the gay-marriage movement:

In Febuary, FOR helped spread the word about the racist cartoon published by the New York Post. Pressure from the justice community, politicians, and countless ordinary citizens forced the Post to issue an apology. Many in our community, however, found its statement to be half-hearted at best, and are working to apply additional pressure on the Post and its owner, Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation, by pushing companies to stop advertising in the newspaper. As Color of Change stated last week,

While it's unlikely that major advertisers will pull ads from The Post right now, it's very valuable to tell advertisers how we feel. Hearing from us now will make it harder for them to continue their association with The Post if the paper does something like this again.