Improvisations: Arab Woman Progressive Voice: Ambassador of the Poor

Improvisations: Arab Woman Progressive Voice: Ambassador of the Poor: "The Egyptian poet Ahmad Fou'ad Negm (Nejem/Nejm) has been named, along with Nelson Mandela, international ambassador of the poor. He will advocate on behave of poor Arabs in the international arena. Nagm is a leftist poet who writes in the Egyptian dialect. Many of his poems were sung in the 1960s and 1970s by his long-time friend Sheikh Imam (they had a falling out at some point). He writes about the poor, corrupt leaders and regimes, fat cats, neo-colonialism, and revolution."

A Vicious Hate Crime In WV

I got the story through Ann via Rachel's Tavern regarding the racist hate crime in WV:


http://kathmanduk2.wordpress.com/2007/09/11/and-will-she-get-justice/

Also, What About Our Daughters is covering this horrific and near-fatal hate crime:

http://whataboutourdaughters.blogspot.com/2007/09/black-woman-tortured-and-raped-for-week.html


More news on this horrific crime:

W.VA. MULLS HATE CRIME PROBE

SIX CHARGED IN TORTURE

TORTURE COULD BE HATE CRIME



May God watch us all. These are perilous times for Black women in America today. When will it ever end? Probably never as long as people in general believe the hateful lies on Black women generated for centuries by the powers that be. I hope she gets justice and not have white supremacist media, so-called Black media, and the general society attack her the way they attacked Crystal Gail Mangum and the victims of Dunbar Village in Florida. My prayers go out to her and her family.

Latoyia Figueroa's Father Is Starting His Support Group

This is similiar to the organization started by Shawna Hawk's mother Dee Sumpter when her daughter was murdered in February 1993. I hope his group be successful in bringing to the public's attention concerning murders of young people in the Philadelphia metro area as well as the nation.

Who'll mourn La'Toyia? Her father has a dream
By Annette John-Hall,Inquirer Columnist


Melvin Figueroa hopes to start a foundation to help find missing people like his murdered daughter, whose picture he holds. Melvin Figueroa suffered a stroke a couple of months ago. He was diagnosed with diabetes. He's now on a half-dozen medications.
Stress will do that to you.

Figueroa is only 47. But he sounds old and tired, like a man who's survived unspeakable tragedy.

Like so many other parents during a blood-drenched summer in the city, Figueroa endured the worst - in his case, the disappearance and murder of his daughter, La'Toyia.

So forgive him if he hasn't been glued to the TV lately. The nonstop coverage of Jessie Davis - the nine-months-pregnant Ohio mother who went missing before authorities charged her cop boyfriend with her murder - reminds him too much of the ordeal he went through trying to find La'Toyia.

Not that he could ever forget.

Next month, it will be two years since 24-year-old La'Toyia disappeared and was found murdered, her body left in a vacant lot with the trash, her 5-month-old fetus dead inside her.

Her boyfriend, Stephen Poaches, was charged with her murder and eventually sentenced to life in prison. Life - at least he has his.

There are many similarities between Davis' and La'Toyia's cases.

Both were young and pregnant. Both went missing. Both were found murdered, the leading cause of death among pregnant women in the United States. Both met their fates at the hands of men they thought loved them. And both left behind children, for La'Toyia, a daughter, now 9.


The value of life
But there's one big difference: Davis was pretty and white; La'Toyia, pretty and Latina.
Which meant that Davis' story and all of its titillating elements - an interracial coupling, love triangles, bad-cop drama - warranted the CNN crawl, 24/7, interview after interview, and the usual pundit parade.

La'Toyia? It was almost two weeks until the local papers even picked up her story. Only a few months before, the national media fixated on the sentencing of Scott Peterson, whose murder of his pretty pregnant wife, Laci, was played out over and over for three years.

It was only after a local blogger contacted CNN about La'Toyia's case - and the inequity of her coverage - that her story got heavily publicized, which finally brought out search parties and pressured authorities to prioritize her case.

For a minute, the stations took a break from blanket coverage of Natalee Hollaway, the missing teen in Aruba. Suddenly, La'Toyia was not just a missing pregnant woman but the face of the forgotten minority.


'I have to humble myself'
Figueroa is painfully aware of the racial inequities and class distinctions that dictate which stories the media decide to cover. Paris Hilton, anyone?

Seems the media declare that bad things are not supposed to happen to white women. With poor women of color, they're expected.

"As a father, I felt some kind of way about [Laci Peterson] being white and my daughter being Hispanic," Figueroa says. "Now there's a book and a movie going to be made about [Peterson] and nothing about my daughter . . .

"I get angry about it but I have to humble myself."

Because the truth is, Figueroa doesn't wish what happened to La'Toyia on any family, no matter what color. The loss of a child feels the same to every parent.

"If I had money in my pocket, I would go out to Ohio and support [Jessie Davis'] family. It's a blessing that they had people to help them search for her, because I had to go out there by myself every day to search for my daughter [until her disappearance was publicized]."

In all of these cases, the obvious question looms: What in the name of an unborn child would possess a man to kill the mother of his baby?

Figueroa thinks he knows. "Sometimes men don't want to raise their children but they don't want no other man to raise them, either," he explains. "That's the motive for all this."

So murder makes their lives easier?

"If you don't want to be a father, it don't cost nothing to be a deadbeat dad," Figueroa continues. "If you're not happy with a young lady, that don't give you the right to take her life and the life of a child."

As unbearably heartbreaking as La'Toyia's death was, Figueroa came out of it a changed man. He's more spirit-filled, more committed to helping folks who have lost loved ones to violence as he has.

And there are plenty of them. Here, in a city with a murder rate that just hit 200, Figueroa's work never ends. Despite his weariness, he organizes candlelight vigils, visits families, even pays his respects at visitations and funerals.

His dream is to open the La'Toyia Figueroa Foundation, which would assist relatives in finding missing loved ones.

In the meantime, he knows the perfect person to play La'Toyia in a film: newly crowned American Idol Jordin Sparks.

"She has her eyes, her smile," Figueroa says. "I hope God will open the door and let that movie be made."

Because there's more to La'Toyia's life than we will ever know.

reappropriate » Blog Archive » Hate Crime at the University of Maryland?

reappropriate » Blog Archive » Hate Crime at the University of Maryland?: "Earlier this week, reports surfaced of a possible hate crime on the University of Maryland campus. A noose was reported hanging outside of one of the dorms, possibly intended to target — and terrorize — African American students living within."

Jefferson claims racial motive in bribery case - Politics - MSNBC.com

Jefferson claims racial motive in bribery case - Politics - MSNBC.com: "WASHINGTON - Rep. William Jefferson accused the Justice Department of bringing corruption charges against him in Virginia to reduce the chance of drawing black jurors. Jefferson, a Louisiana Democrat who has been charged in an international bribery case, made the argument Friday in federal court documents seeking to move the case to Washington. 'The court has an obligation to ensure that the forum selection in this case was not tainted by racially discriminatory motive,' Jefferson's attorney, Robert P. Trout wrote."

Very Touching Video of Latoyia Figueroa

To all of my cyberfriends and concerned citizens,

Here's a very touching tribute to Latoyia at YouTube:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=E8fTZpg0Yac

Watch it, then weep!

Brawl Over Islam on Facebook - New York Times

Brawl Over Islam on Facebook - New York Times: "The social networking site Facebook from afar can look a lot like college, with cliques and the familiar range of personalities. In another imitation of college life, the Facebook campus is wrestling with the contentious issue of speech codes. The latest concern centers on a group with a crude title denouncing Islam that had more than 750 members at last count. While the group takes pains to say it has nothing against Muslims, who “can be and usually are peaceful and respectful,” it asserts at the start: “The Quran contains many lies and threats. Islam is false, no god exists, and someone should say that loud and clear.” In the month or so since the group was created, the reaction has been building across Facebook. As of the weekend, more than 58,000 Facebook members had joined a group that said that unless the anti-Islam group was removed, “we r quitting Facebook.” Facebook declined to comment on Friday on the subject of hate speech or on what steps had been taken."

Jena Six in national spotlight « Vox ex Machina

Jena Six in national spotlight « Vox ex Machina: "Over the past couple of days, a few important things have happened re: the Jena Six. Most importantly, due to pressure, Judge J.P. Mauffray Jr. threw out Mychal Bell’s conspiracy conviction, leaving him with only an aggravated second-degree battery conviction, which carries up to 15 years. Not great, but much better than the 100 years he originally faced with the conspiracy and attempted murder charges, and even the 22 he faced before the conspiracy conviction was dropped."

David Horowitz, Racist

YouTube - David Horowitz, Racist: "FOX News bigotry: It's not just for Sean Hannity any more."

Transracial Adoptees, Permanent Homes, Forever Families, and Their Home They Are Forced to Leave « The Blog and the Bullet

Transracial Adoptees, Permanent Homes, Forever Families, and Their Home They Are Forced to Leave « The Blog and the Bullet: "Sume blogs about the intracacies of what is really home and family while being a transracial adoptee: In the case of domestic adoption, can more be done to keep families in tact? What roles do racism and class play in creating and perpetuating environments that feed children into system? Have we as a society become too reliant upon adoption as a solution because of lack of a better one? And let us not forget that adoption is an industry regardless of it’s mutually beneficial appearance. As an industry, adoption has created as many or more problems as it has presumably solved. On one hand, it gives children to parents who want them, but on another, it feeds and sustains a voracious baby market. As potential adoptive parents seek cheaper, quicker ways to acquire children those only too willing to provide that without much thought to ethics will appear. Adoption as an industry will do what’s necessary to stay alive."

Evangelist plans to be anti-violence advocate | ajc.com

Evangelist plans to be anti-violence advocate | ajc.com: "The tough-talking pastor, who has survived a divorce, a nervous breakdown and life on welfare, broke her silence two weeks after her second husband, Bishop Thomas W. Weeks III, allegedly beat, stomped and choked her in a hotel parking lot. Bynum appeared Tuesday night as a special guest on TBN's 'Praise The Lord' program, a Christian talk show featuring ministers, gospel artists and other newsmakers. On the show, Bynum said she had no bitterness toward her husband. She would not say anything negative about Weeks. 'Nobody could give me enough money,' she said. 'As long as he's my husband I won't break that covenant.' Also on the show, she said the church would help people by preaching more about personal experiences such as her own. While interviews other guests, an emotional Bynum said, 'I came here tonight to declare that I can bear it, I can bear it, I can bear it.'"

Fatima : I Do Not Support the Troops

Fatima A few weeks ago I watched Oprah stage her input into the plight of the American soldier in Iraq and Afghansitan. She assembled the families of returning troops in her studio without them knowing that the actual soldiers were there too. Classic set-up emotionalism so typical of Oprah, and American television in general.

Somewhere in between watching emotional scenes of reunions, children hanging onto fathers and mothers who have been away, and loving embraces between loved ones, I felt a certain resentment.

My resentment was first directed at Oprah. I thought "damn why is she making a nationalistic statement about troops and their families?"

Well I knew the answer almost immediately. It sells. And Oprah is a salesperson first. She is playing to the glossed-over majority mindset in America that mostly excuses the troops from their vicious role. The "I Support our Troops" and their families so bring them home from that war 'over there' mentality is profitable in these terms.

The troops in this sense are not held responsible for their actions. They are rather seen as victims of what is now an unpopular war. If there is brutality to be recognized, well then the excuse is that they are merely carrying out orders.

It is here that my greater sense of resentment was directed. I could barely watch the service men and women embrace their families without thinking about the mass terror and murders their voluntary service has enabled.

Brown, Black, and white troops. Poor and patriotic. I needed to be careful about throwing all these into one bucket of resentment. But I found myself not caring anyway. Who speaks for the suffering of Iraqi's and Afghans? The senseless murder of innocents. The rape and prostitution forced on a people in the name of democracy.

Well not Oprah, of course. Not one word was spoken, not one tear was shed, for the millions who cannot reunite with their families or loved ones on Oprah's stage.