RECENT STORIES
- by Carl Chancellor · February 22, 2011 · HUMAN RIGHTSRead More »
Over the weekend we reported about Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour's refusal to denounce a proposal to honor Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, a co-founder of the Ku Klux Klan infamous for leading his rebels in a massacre of black Union soldiers, with an official Mississippi license plate.
After more than a week of side stepping the issue and telling the state NAACP and others that he would not denounce the notion of recognizing the racist confederate general, the governor, who has presidential aspirations, seems to have felt the political heat and yesterday stated for the first-time that he would veto any measure that seeks to honor General Forrest.
Yes!
- by Carl Chancellor · February 21, 2011 · HUMAN RIGHTSRead More »
Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest was a traitor, a racist, and some say, a murderer--basically the trifecta of despicability.
Yet, despite this man's heinous history and outrageous character flaws, Mississippi is seriously considering issuing an official state license plate in his honor.
Hell, while they're at it, Mississippi officials might as well crank out state license tags honoring Osama bin Laden or Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
The plates, including the one for Forrest, could be marketed as the state's homage to terrorists.
- by Carl Chancellor · February 16, 2011 · HUMAN RIGHTSRead More »
In the early 1960s America was shocked by images of Birmingham, Alabama's notorious and bigoted Police Commissioner Theophilus Eugene 'Bull' Connor turning water hoses and dogs on school students to keep them in line. While Birmingham and the rest of the nation has progressed mightily in the ensuing 50 years, Birmingham school students are still under assault by that city's police.
We've reported recently on a lawsuit filed in December by the Southern Poverty Law Center against the Birmingham Board of Education, School Superintendent Craig Witherspoon, Birmingham Police Chief A.C. Roper and other officials asking that the federal court step in and put a stop to the use of "chemical weapons" - pepper spray - on students as a means of basic school discipline.
When I contacted the school district in early January about the lawsuit, school officials had no response. But just days ago the school board's lawyer told local press that it is the board's position that it "has no federal constitutional duty to protect students' safety from the actions of third parties." By third parties, the lawyer means the police officers who patrol school hallways as school resource officers.
No duty to protect students' safety?
- by Carl Chancellor · January 23, 2011 · HUMAN RIGHTSRead More »
It seems that Iowa's newly elected Republican Governor, Terry Branstad, couldn't wait to disenfranchise an entire class of Iowa voters.
Just hours after being sworn into office earlier this month, Branstad wasted no time in turning back the legislative clock and issuing an Executive Order that snatched away hard-won voting rights from ex-felons.
So much for Iowa living up to its state motto: "Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain." Clearly, in the Hawkeye State the terms "our" and "we" don't encompass the formerly incarcerated.
Branstad's Executive Order 70 rescinds a 2005 law that removed the requirement that individuals convicted of a felony or aggravated misdemeanor apply to the governor's office to have their right to vote restored once they completed their sentences, probation and parole.
Prior to former Gov. Tom Vilksack signing an order restoring voting rights to some 80,000 ex-felons on July 4, 2005 - a day Vilsack called "a celebration of democracy" - an ex-felon had to petition for a restoration of his or her voting rights. It was a time consuming process that required intervention from the governor's office, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, and the parole board. Routinely, many of those petition requests were denied with a disproportionate number of the denials being rendered against minorities.
Now it's back to the "good old" days in Iowa.
- by Carl Chancellor · January 12, 2011 · HUMAN RIGHTSRead More »
The epicenter of crime in the black community, at least according to the Orange County Florida Sheriff's Department, is the neighborhood barbershop.
I guess anytime there is a group of more than two or three black men gathered in one place, brandishing weapons - in this case, hair clippers and scissors - and with a commonality of purpose - getting a little taken off the top - it all adds up to criminal activity.
Last year, more than a dozen Orange County deputies, all heavily armed, stormed nine neighborhood barbershops in Pine Hills, Florida, an unincorporated area just outside of Orlando, in a series of raids aimed at uncovering criminal activity. To their credit the deputies did make a total of 37 arrests, although 34 of those arrested were charged with heinous crime of "barbering without a license," which in the state of Florida, and probably everywhere else for that matter, is a misdemeanor.
To make matters even worse, the raids were conducted without warrants. Why bother with going before a judge to show probable cause that a crime is being committed? The heck with the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures! Instead just do like the Orange County Sheriff's department and tag along with inspectors from the Florida Department of Professional Regulation who have the authority to enter barbershops and hair salons to check for licensing violations.
Those arrested during the raids were taken out in handcuffs and transported to the county jail.
- by Carl Chancellor · December 17, 2010 · HUMAN RIGHTSRead More »
If you're black or Latino and you're planning on traveling in New York City, I suggest you fill your pockets with lots of subway and bus tokens because you're going to find hailing a cab next to impossible.
The fact that it is frustratingly hard to get a NYC cab to stop for you if you are a person of color comes as no surprise. But this already next-to-impossible task just got that much more difficult thanks to Fernando Mateo, head of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers.
Mateo has taken to every microphone he can find to urge NYC hacks to "racial profile" a potential fare before deciding to pick-up a passenger: "You know, sometimes it is good we are racially profiled, because the God's honest truth is that 99 percent of the people that are robbing, stealing, killing these drivers are blacks and Hispanics," said Mateo, who himself is of Hispanic and African-American heritage.
Mateo, a New York gadfly who seems to insert himself regularly in controversial situations, made his statement shortly after the shooting of a Queen's taxi driver. Soon after making his comments, Mateo (also the president of Hispanics Across America which like his Taxi Federation has a disconnected phone number) was quickly rebuked by civic leaders and city officials, including NYC's Taxi and Limousine commissioner David Yassky: "Choosing which passengers to serve on the basis of race is illegal, downright wrong and simply unacceptable," said Yassky.
- by Carl Chancellor · December 02, 2010 · HUMAN RIGHTSRead More »
The owners of a Connecticut roller skating rink aren't apologizing for equating the traditional headscarf worn by many Muslim women to a Do-rag.
Apparently the owners of Ron-A-Roll skating rink in Vernon, CT don't understand the difference between a stupid fashion choice (Do-rag) and an outward expression of one's religious beliefs (hijab)... Or maybe they do, which is an altogether different and much more serious problem.
A little more than a week ago two Muslim women were informed by the manager of the Ron-A-Roll roller skating rink that they would be barred from skating if they insisted on wearing their hijabs. When the women tried explain to the manager that the hijab was part of their religious observance the manager still refused to accommodate them.
Ron-A-Roll's manager insisted that he was simply following the rink's dress code policy, which in addition to prohibiting muscle shirts and overly baggy or sagging pants, also bans an assortment of head wear including hats, caps, wave caps and Do-rags. According to news accounts, the rink manager said if the women wouldn't remove their headscarves they would have to wear helmets, ostensibly because of safety concerns.
- by Carl Chancellor · November 29, 2010 · HUMAN RIGHTSRead More »
Why all the furor and consternation about the government sanctioned group grope playing out in our nation's airports this Thanksgiving season?
Okay, I'll admit the prospect of having a blue uniformed minion of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) feeling me up - the so-called "enhanced pat-down" - isn't something I find appealing. Still, it isn't an indignity that any of us has to put up with day in and day out.
If you are an African-American like me, however, and you happen to live in Philadelphia or in an ever growing list of US cities, having to possibly endure the humiliation of being singled-out, pulled aside and frisked is a daily concern.
Of course the uniformed authority behind these invasive and dehumanizing body pat-down security screens isn't the TSA but local police. Worse yet, this type of civil rights violating affront is not confined to just the airport, where at least the reasoning behind the searches (to guard against terrorists) is clear and where everyone is subjected to basically the same treatment. No, the security screening measures I'm speaking of are being conducted on the streets of cities like Philadelphia.
Further, unlike the understandably disgruntled folks who believe the airport invasion of privacy is an outrage, black folks in Philly don't have the option of opting out. If you're black or Latino and walking down a Philadelphia street, you're fair game.
- by Carl Chancellor · October 29, 2010 · ECONOMIC JUSTICERead More »
If I lived in New York, I know who would get my vote for governor. That's right, I'd put a big fat check mark next to the name of Jimmy McMillan.
Admittedly, given his appearance it is easy to dismiss this Vietnam veteran and his political aspirations as being crazy, far-out and as outlandish as his ultra-stylized facial hair and omnipresent black gloves, but there is no denying that Jimmy McMillan is 100 percent dead on the mark when it comes to the main (and basically the only) plank of his political platform: Rent Is Too Damn High.
Jimmy stole the show — the New York gubernatorial debate held Oct. 18 that featured the seven candidates vying for the state's top elected office, including front runners Republican Carl Paladino and Democrat Andrew Cuomo. Staring out from an explosion of white hair, Jimmy looked straight into the cameras and told it like it is, (say it with me) — "Rent Is Too Damn High."
For those who would choose to disregard Jimmy McMillan and write him off as a sideshow act and chalk-up his candidacy as Looney Tunes venture, I would refer them to an old saw that proclaims, "Even a broken clock is right twice a day." Yes, Brother Jimmy might be a little cracked, but like my grandmother used to say when she wanted to underscore the absolute correctness of a statement — "He ain't never lied."
The state of New York, however, isn't alone when it comes to its failure to provide rental units people can afford. A new study (pdf) just released by the Census Bureau found that a majority of U.S. renters, nearly 52 percent, lived in unaffordable housing in 2009. According to housing experts, for housing to be considered affordable a family should pay no more than 30 percent of its annual income toward rent.
However, the reality is that more than 18.5 million renters spent more that 30 percent of their income on rent and utilities last year. That's up from 17.4 million in 2008. The trend is expected to continues its upward trajectory as rents continue to rise and incomes decline.
- by Carl Chancellor · October 25, 2010 · HUMAN RIGHTSRead More »
As is usually the case when it comes to talking about racism, folks have the tendency to quickly change the subject, and I find that infuriating.
There has certainly been more than enough talk about the bigoted, anti-Muslim remarks made by Juan Williams, words which lead to the veteran newsman getting swiftly canned by National Public Radio (NPR) and just as quickly, generously rewarded by Fox News.
Unfortunately the talk hasn't been about what Williams said, but about what happened to him for saying what he said.
Somehow the subject quickly shifted from being about Williams' racist statement, to a discussion about whether or not Williams was a victim.
Before I go any further I want to establish the following fact: When a person says that "when I get on a plane and see people dressed in Muslim garb, and they identify themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried, I get nervous" — that person is admitting to prejudice.
Juan Williams is prejudiced against individuals he considers, based solely on their appearance, to be Muslims.
Still need more proof?
Any time someone prefaces a stupid statement by declaring that they aren't something: Like — "I'm not a racists, but..."; or "I'm not sexist, but..."; or in Juan Williams case, "I'm not a bigot, but..." —you can take it to the bank that they are exactly what they claim not to be.
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