Here are several news clippings for the week of June 24, 2007:
LATIN AMERICA: Black Women on the Bottom RungBy Diego Cevallos- MEXICO CITY, Jun 19 (IPS) -
There are at least 75 million black women in Latin America and the Caribbean, but those who occupy high-level political or public administration posts number less than 50. As activists pointed out to IPS this week, black women are at the very bottom of the social ladder in this region.
More about this sad plight of Latin American Black Women, Click here.
The body of Jessie Davis Found.
This is sad news to the week-long search for Ms. Davis, who was nine-months pregnant and a mother of a two-year old son. Click here and here. My prayers and sympathy are with her family. As Ms. Davis is being mourned, let's also remember Latoyia Figueroa and Reyna Marroquin whose lives ended in tragedy as Jessie Davis. May they all rest in peace.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Saturday, June 09, 2007
This Week's Links for 6-9-2007
To all my readers,
Here are several article I have for your reading pleasure:
"Diversity Is Still An Issue at TV Networks"- LA Times. How about more diverse viewpoints in newsrooms as well? It's still not diverse despite the growing population of people of Color in the U.S. C'mon, y'all can do better than that. Hat tip to Racialicious.com for the link.
Fox News Bundles Race Reporting. No Brainer here.
This article is from The Gimp Parade via Rachel's Tavern. It's about the Long Island Couple suing the fertility clinic for the "wrong" in-vitro that resulted in having a child darker than her parents. This is not new, for in the 1990s when a white woman was given the wrong in-vitro that resulted in her having a biracial Black girl(now a teenager). She sued the clinic for damages and was generously compensated. What if such thing happened to a Black expectant mother? Would she be generously compensated for giving her the wrong treatment? Would the public be sympathetic to her plight? What you say?
More petitions against hateful racist/sexist stereotyping by corporations. Please sign them. Thank you Ann for bringing this to the forefront.
Here are several article I have for your reading pleasure:
"Diversity Is Still An Issue at TV Networks"- LA Times. How about more diverse viewpoints in newsrooms as well? It's still not diverse despite the growing population of people of Color in the U.S. C'mon, y'all can do better than that. Hat tip to Racialicious.com for the link.
Fox News Bundles Race Reporting. No Brainer here.
This article is from The Gimp Parade via Rachel's Tavern. It's about the Long Island Couple suing the fertility clinic for the "wrong" in-vitro that resulted in having a child darker than her parents. This is not new, for in the 1990s when a white woman was given the wrong in-vitro that resulted in her having a biracial Black girl(now a teenager). She sued the clinic for damages and was generously compensated. What if such thing happened to a Black expectant mother? Would she be generously compensated for giving her the wrong treatment? Would the public be sympathetic to her plight? What you say?
More petitions against hateful racist/sexist stereotyping by corporations. Please sign them. Thank you Ann for bringing this to the forefront.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
News for 5-29-2007
News for 5-29-2007:
Here's an interesting article from Utne reader regarding racism in the blogosphere:
Bigotry and the Blogs
Related link:
The Segregated Blogosphere
Tell me what you think of the above articles.
More news later. Have a nice day!
Here's an interesting article from Utne reader regarding racism in the blogosphere:
Bigotry and the Blogs
Related link:
The Segregated Blogosphere
Tell me what you think of the above articles.
More news later. Have a nice day!
She Was More Than King's Daughter by Earl Ofari Hutchinson
She Was More Than King’s Daughter
Earl Ofari Hutchinson
The applause was loud and sustained virtually every moment that Yolanda King was on stage performing her one-woman theatrical performance. The audience beamed with love, joy and most importantly appreciation for her. This writer did too as I sat spellbound in the first row of the Los Angeles church where King performed. The occasion was the annual King Day celebration last year held at a popular Los Angeles church. The audience didn’t embrace and idolize King solely because she was the daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Most of those in the audience weren’t even born when King was alive. And the applause for her wasn’t solely out of a misty nostalgia for the civil rights movement.
Most there had no first hand knowledge or involvement in the civil rights battles four decades. No, their applause and respect was for her, and her moving on stage recapture of the pain, suffering, and sacrifice as well as the triumphs of the civil rights movement. Their sustained applause was also given out of deep appreciation for her impassioned crusade to keep Dr. King’s dream alive by actively opposing Bush’s wasteful and ruinous Iraq war, championing women and gay rights, and fighting for economic justice for the poor. In between her theatrical skits, she would pause take a deep breath, and in measured but passionate tones remind the audience that King’s dream still was unfulfilled. She in turn prodded, cajoled, and implored the audience that the best way to keep her father’s dream alive was to be active fighters for peace and social justice.
Yolanda King understood that decades after the great civil rights battles of the 1960s blacks are still two and three times more likely to be unemployed than whites, trapped in segregated neighborhoods, and that their kids will attend disgracefully failing, mostly segregated public schools. It ignores the reality that young black males and females are far more likely to be murdered, suffer HIV/AIDS affliction, to be racially-profiled by police, imprisoned, placed on probation or parole, permanently barred in many states from voting because of felony convictions, are much more likely to receive the death penalty especially if their victims are white, and are more likely to be victims of racially motivated violence than whites.
She well knew that middle-class blacks that reaped the biggest gains from the civil rights struggles often find the new suburban neighborhoods they move to are re-segregated and soon look like the old neighborhoods they fled. They are ignored by cab drivers, followed by clerks in stores, left fuming at restaurants because of poor or no service, find that more and more of their sons and daughters are cut out of scholarships and student support programs at universities because of the demolition of affirmative action, and denied bank loans for their businesses and homes. Then there are the fierce battles over affirmative action, police violence, the segregation laws still on the books in some Southern states, and the nightmarish scenes of thousands of poor blacks fleeing for their lives from the Katrina floodwaters in New Orleans, and the big fight over what if anything should be done about the plight of the black poor. These are further bitter reminders of the gaping economic and racial chasm in America. Yolanda knew that as well, and was a resolute fighter for the poor.
In the decades after King's murder, Yolanda stormed the barricades against racial injustice, economic inequality, military adventurism, and against hate crimes and violence. She wrote countless letters, gave speeches, and participated in direct action campaigns. She continued to fiercely protect King's legacy from the opportunists that twisted and sullied his words and name.The civil rights struggle has now become the stuff of nostalgia, history books, and the memoirs of aging former civil rights leaders. Yet, millions remain trapped in poverty, and racial discrimination still pervades much of American society. Dr. King’s dream was to free them from that plight. Yolanda King and her father shared that same dream. And like her father she did more than dream. She brought her relentless passion and vision for peace and social justice to that battle. Her and her father’s vision of what America still can be continues to challenge us to do our part to make that vision a reality for millions of Americans of all races. We’ll deeply miss Yolanda King. But it can be truly be said that she was more than just King's daughter.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His new book The Latino Challenge to Black America: Towards a Conversation between African-Americans and Hispanics (Middle Passage Press and Hispanic Economics New York) in English and Spanish will be out in October.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson
The applause was loud and sustained virtually every moment that Yolanda King was on stage performing her one-woman theatrical performance. The audience beamed with love, joy and most importantly appreciation for her. This writer did too as I sat spellbound in the first row of the Los Angeles church where King performed. The occasion was the annual King Day celebration last year held at a popular Los Angeles church. The audience didn’t embrace and idolize King solely because she was the daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Most of those in the audience weren’t even born when King was alive. And the applause for her wasn’t solely out of a misty nostalgia for the civil rights movement.
Most there had no first hand knowledge or involvement in the civil rights battles four decades. No, their applause and respect was for her, and her moving on stage recapture of the pain, suffering, and sacrifice as well as the triumphs of the civil rights movement. Their sustained applause was also given out of deep appreciation for her impassioned crusade to keep Dr. King’s dream alive by actively opposing Bush’s wasteful and ruinous Iraq war, championing women and gay rights, and fighting for economic justice for the poor. In between her theatrical skits, she would pause take a deep breath, and in measured but passionate tones remind the audience that King’s dream still was unfulfilled. She in turn prodded, cajoled, and implored the audience that the best way to keep her father’s dream alive was to be active fighters for peace and social justice.
Yolanda King understood that decades after the great civil rights battles of the 1960s blacks are still two and three times more likely to be unemployed than whites, trapped in segregated neighborhoods, and that their kids will attend disgracefully failing, mostly segregated public schools. It ignores the reality that young black males and females are far more likely to be murdered, suffer HIV/AIDS affliction, to be racially-profiled by police, imprisoned, placed on probation or parole, permanently barred in many states from voting because of felony convictions, are much more likely to receive the death penalty especially if their victims are white, and are more likely to be victims of racially motivated violence than whites.
She well knew that middle-class blacks that reaped the biggest gains from the civil rights struggles often find the new suburban neighborhoods they move to are re-segregated and soon look like the old neighborhoods they fled. They are ignored by cab drivers, followed by clerks in stores, left fuming at restaurants because of poor or no service, find that more and more of their sons and daughters are cut out of scholarships and student support programs at universities because of the demolition of affirmative action, and denied bank loans for their businesses and homes. Then there are the fierce battles over affirmative action, police violence, the segregation laws still on the books in some Southern states, and the nightmarish scenes of thousands of poor blacks fleeing for their lives from the Katrina floodwaters in New Orleans, and the big fight over what if anything should be done about the plight of the black poor. These are further bitter reminders of the gaping economic and racial chasm in America. Yolanda knew that as well, and was a resolute fighter for the poor.
In the decades after King's murder, Yolanda stormed the barricades against racial injustice, economic inequality, military adventurism, and against hate crimes and violence. She wrote countless letters, gave speeches, and participated in direct action campaigns. She continued to fiercely protect King's legacy from the opportunists that twisted and sullied his words and name.The civil rights struggle has now become the stuff of nostalgia, history books, and the memoirs of aging former civil rights leaders. Yet, millions remain trapped in poverty, and racial discrimination still pervades much of American society. Dr. King’s dream was to free them from that plight. Yolanda King and her father shared that same dream. And like her father she did more than dream. She brought her relentless passion and vision for peace and social justice to that battle. Her and her father’s vision of what America still can be continues to challenge us to do our part to make that vision a reality for millions of Americans of all races. We’ll deeply miss Yolanda King. But it can be truly be said that she was more than just King's daughter.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His new book The Latino Challenge to Black America: Towards a Conversation between African-Americans and Hispanics (Middle Passage Press and Hispanic Economics New York) in English and Spanish will be out in October.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
My Favorite Uncle Has Passed Away
Phillip Whatley (1955-2007)
I lost someone close to me last night. He's my uncle Phillip Whatley. He died last night at Good Samaritan Hospital in Dayton Ohio at 11:30. He was 52 years old. In fact, he just turned 52 a month ago. I remembered his as not just my favorite uncle. He had a lot of wisdom and sense of humor as well. It was he who encouraged my intellectual talent. I remember when I was 10 years old, he gave me the entire set of encyclopedias, therefore encourage my love for learning. He will be sorely missed by me and my family members. My mother and Phillip's wife and kids took his death the hardest, for he was the heart and soul of the family.
May God be with my family and may he rest in peace until we meet again in paradise Earth.
I lost someone close to me last night. He's my uncle Phillip Whatley. He died last night at Good Samaritan Hospital in Dayton Ohio at 11:30. He was 52 years old. In fact, he just turned 52 a month ago. I remembered his as not just my favorite uncle. He had a lot of wisdom and sense of humor as well. It was he who encouraged my intellectual talent. I remember when I was 10 years old, he gave me the entire set of encyclopedias, therefore encourage my love for learning. He will be sorely missed by me and my family members. My mother and Phillip's wife and kids took his death the hardest, for he was the heart and soul of the family.
May God be with my family and may he rest in peace until we meet again in paradise Earth.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Boycott Aunt Jemima!
Ann has a well written article discussing the vicious racist/sexist stereotype of Aunt Jemima and its impact upon the status of Black women in America then and today. Here's the article:
Towards the End of Aunt Jemima
Also read:
The Mammy Caricature
The Cultural Image of African American Women
After reading the article, I want people to sign the petition denoucing the mammy/Aunt Jemima stereotyping of all Black women in America at:
http://www.petitiononline.com/aj461153/petition.html
Towards the End of Aunt Jemima
Also read:
The Mammy Caricature
The Cultural Image of African American Women
After reading the article, I want people to sign the petition denoucing the mammy/Aunt Jemima stereotyping of all Black women in America at:
http://www.petitiononline.com/aj461153/petition.html
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Yolanda Denise King and Jerry Falwell, R.I.P.
First news, the death of Martin Luther King's eldest daughter Yolanda Denise King. She died yesterday in California. She was 51 years old.
Andrew Young, a lieutenant of Martin Luther King Jr.'s during the civil rights movement who remained close to the family after the civil rights icon's death, said Yolanda King had just spoken at an event for the American Heart Association. Last year, Yolanda King became a spokeswoman for the organization, and promoted a campaign to raise awareness, especially among blacks, about stroke.
For more on the untimely passing of Yolanda King, please go to:
Also, in the news, the Rev. Jerry Falwell died yesterday at home in Virginia. He was 73 years old.
For more, click on:
For more, click on:
May they rest in peace!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
LinkWithin
