info
Court smacks down Joe Arpaio: Turning point for ‘America’s toughest sheriff?’
May 25, 2013
A federal court on Friday found that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio systematically violated the constitutional rights of immigrants through “saturation” sweeps that ended up targeting people based on their appearance or perceived ancestry.
The destructively racist Arpaio has over the past decade come to define American anger over illegal immigration as he’s aggressively pursued immigration lawbreakers in Arizona’s most populous county, corralling a staggering 25 percent of all US immigration arrests per year.
Arpaio remains popular among many conservatives for stunts like his racist investigation of President Obama’s birth certificate and issuing pink underwear to inmates, a choice which both perpetuates ridiculous shaming of varied gender expressions and shamefully celebrates systemic dehumanization. The court ruling can be seen as part of a broader pushback against aggressive immigration enforcement and growing momentum for a bipartisan solution to the difficult and often traumatic lifestyles that many of America’s undocumented people are subjected to.
The decision, which in essence agreed with an earlier lower court ruling, should be seen as “a warning to any agency trying to enforce ‘show me your papers’ [state laws] – there is no exception in the Constitution for immigration enforcement,” said Cecilia Wang, director f the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, in a statement. In the ruling, US District Court Judge Murray Snow told Arpaio and his deputies to stop using race and ancestry as reasons to stop or detain drivers in a tactic widely known as “saturation patrols.”
But if the court ruling represents a victory for immigration advocates and a legal reversal for Arpaio, it’s also clear that, even before the ruling, Arpaio had been losing support among more educated white voters even as opposition against him had galvanized among ascendant Hispanic voters, the Arizona Capital Times newspaper reported recently. Arpaio won reelection with only 50.7 percent of the vote last November, his lowest total. “He was the most popular guy in the state, but he’s been on a long slow ride down,” Arizona political analyst Michael O’Neil told the newspaper.
Source
Photo Source | Photo Source 2 | Photo Source 3 (right-wing nonsense)
Please post this brand new incredible video NOW from Jamel Mims and Noche Diaz on national movement to Stop Mass Incarceration, they also announce tonight’s Dialogue between Cornel West + Carl Dix on “Mass Incarceration + Silence = Genocide. Act to Stop it NOW!”
In this 5-minute video, Jamel and Noche also announce tonight’s Dialogue between Cornel West + Carl Dix on “Mass Incarceration + Silence = Genocide. Act to Stop it NOW!”
Today (May 9, 2013) is the 66th anniversary of the start of the first Freedom Ride.
It was called the Journey of Reconciliation, and white & black activists rode (otherwise) segregated buses through four southern states.
The interstate bus ride, lasted from April 9-23, and was designed to test the June 3, 1946 Supreme Court ruling that said Black passengers could not be forced to sit at the back of the bus. Bayard Rustin, a 101 Changemaker, participated in and helped to organize the ride. The riders were arrested several times.
Later rides and riders would be violently attacked by racist mobs.
Read more in: 101 Changemakers: Rebels and Radicals Who Changed US History.
The troubling viral trend of the “hilarious” Black poor person
May 7, 2013Charles Ramsey, the man who helped rescue three Cleveland women presumed dead after going missing a decade ago, has become an instant Internet meme. It’s hardly surprising—the interviews he gave yesterday provide plenty of fodder for a viral video, including memorable soundbites (“I was eatin’ my McDonald’s”) and lots of enthusiastic gestures. But as Miles Klee and Connor Simpson have noted, Ramsey’s heroism is quickly being overshadowed by the public’s desire to laugh at and autotune his story, and that’s a shame. Ramsey has become the latest in a fairly recent trend of “hilarious” black neighbors, unwitting Internet celebrities whose appeal seems rooted in a “colorful” style that is always immediately recognizable as poor or working-class.
Before Ramsey, there was Antoine Dodson, who saved his younger sister from an intruder, only to wind up famous for his flamboyant recounting of the story to a reporter. Since Dodson’s rise to fame, there have been others: Sweet Brown, a woman who barely escaped her apartment complex during a fire last year, and Michelle Clarke, who couldn’t fathom the hailstorm that rained down in her hometown of Houston, and in turn became “the next Sweet Brown.”
Granted, the buzzworthy tactic of reporters interviewing the most loquacious witnesses to a crime or other event is nothing new, and YouTube has countless examples of people of all ethnicities saying ridiculous things. One woman, for instance, saw fit to casually mention her breasts while discussing a local accident, while another man described a car crash with theatrical flair. Earlier this year, a “hatchet-wielding hitchhiker” named Kai matched Dodson’s fame with his astonishing account of rescuing a woman from a racist attacker. But none of those people have been subjected to quite the same level of derisive memeification as Brown, Clark, and now, perhaps, Ramsey—the inescapable echoes of “Hide yo’ kids, hide yo’ wife!” and “Kabooyaw,” the tens of millions of YouTube hits and cameos in other viral videos, even commercials.
It’s difficult to watch these videos and not sense that their popularity has something to do with a persistent, if unconscious, desire to see black people perform. Even before the genuinely heroic Ramsey came along, some viewers had expressed concern that the laughter directed at people like Sweet Brown plays into the most basic stereotyping of blacks as simple-minded ramblers living in the “ghetto,” socially out of step with the rest of educated America. Black or white, seeing Clark and Dodson merely as funny instances of random poor people talking nonsense is disrespectful at best. And shushing away the question of race seems like wishful thinking.
Ramsey is particularly striking in this regard, since, for a moment at least, he put the issue of race front and center himself. Describing the rescue of Amanda Berry and her fellow captives, he says, “I knew something was wrong when a little pretty white girl ran into a black man’s arms. Something is wrong here. Dead giveaway!”
The candid statement seems to catch the reporter off guard; he ends the interview shortly afterward. And it’s notable that among the many memorable things Ramsey said on camera, this one has gotten less meme-attention than most. Those who are simply having fun with the footage of Ramsey might pause for a second to actually listen to the man. He clearly knows a thing or two about the way racism prevents us from seeing each other as people.
Now that you know this is a thing, please stop sharing these memes. Poor Black people speaking candidly about various serious incidents isn’t a hilarious joke.
Look I understand the whole racism thing, but can I ask a serious question?
Why does it always have to be about race? I mean seriously! The guy was funny, even if the situation was not. He gave a humorous retelling of his story of their rescue. And really a lot of people, I’d go so far as to say most people, try to find humor in situations like this, and he did and so have we.
And all the people listed in the post above from Antoine Dodson to Sweet Brown were on CAMERA. So yeah they were probably actually performing a bit themselves.
I prescribe you two doses of chill the fuck out, and you can call me in the morning.
Thank you Jacob, for your absolutely thoughtless contribution to this post. Certainly what we need more of in conversations about racism, is more white people who find ways to dismiss, diminish & silence reports of racism. Way to continue the slave-masters’ legacy, Jacob!
“The colorblindness ideal is premised on the notion that we, as a society, can never be trusted to see race and treat each other fairly or with genuine compassion. A commitment to color consciousness, by contrast, places faith in our capacity as humans to show care and concern for others, even as we are fully cognizant of race and possible racial differences.” — Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow
“..because these story lines are social products, the media play an important role in reinforcing them. News reports on affirmative action seldom address the whiteness of academia or the workplace and its implications; sensational reports on welfare cheats never address the reality of welfare, that people on welfare live below the poverty line; stories of ‘bad’ behavior by Black and Latino youths are presented as ‘normal,’ whereas stories depicting ‘bad’ behavior by white youths are not. New reports on minorities thus tend to be presented as morality tales that support the various racial stories of the color-blind era. These reports are then recycled by the white audience as absolute truths… Therefore, the media uses the racials stories we create and makes them as if they were independent creations that validate our racial angst.”— Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Racism without Racists
“ ‘I’m white and I make it a point in my life to never see skin color’
Translation: ‘I’m white and I make it a point in my life to not acknowledge the fact that our institutionally racist society makes having skin any tone darker than white an absolute living hell, because it makes me uncomfortable. I also would like to erase your experiences as a POC by ‘not seeing’ skin color, while simultaneously upholding white supremacist ideals’ ” - awfullydistracted
“Seeing race is not the problem. Refusing to care for the people we see is the problem… We should hope not for a colorblind society but instead for a world in which we can see each other fully, learn from each other, and do what we can to respond to each other with love.” — Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow, page 244
“I’ve spent nearly a decade studying sociology and race, I’ve read boatloads of books and written countless papers on race, taught Race & Ethnicity as a class to hundreds of students, and yet somehow I’m not cured of racism, prejudice, and discrimination. So I ask anyone who says they’re colorblind, how on earth have you cured yourself of racism without putting in nearly the same level of effort?” -Stuff Students Say About Racism
Generation after generation, from slavery, to Jim Crow, to today’s mass-incarceration/New Jim Crow, people of color have sounded the alarm on racism, reporting their horrific experiences in this racist society. And generation after generation, racist white people have stood up to dismiss racism, even when it is as overt, extreme and systemic as it IS. Don’t be that white person. Don’t be the racist fuck holding the rest of us back. Particularly if you are a white man, be extra vigilant, because historically, it’s always been you. Please & thanks.
(via prismadministrator)
UGH - viral posts are the worst.
Because they go out into the larger tumblr sphere & get shat on with dismissive comments from people who are either unwilling or unprepared to challenge their problematic ideologies & behaviors.
It makes me sad & it reminds me of how much more work we have to do to prepare our human society for fundamental transformation.
Genuine question/concern: How could a revolution (fundamental transformation of the way we organize ourselves) be successful when there are SO many unapologetic racists hiding behind color-blind ideology?
The troubling viral trend of the “hilarious” Black poor person
May 7, 2013
Charles Ramsey, the man who helped rescue three Cleveland women presumed dead after going missing a decade ago, has become an instant Internet meme. It’s hardly surprising—the interviews he gave yesterday provide plenty of fodder for a viral video, including memorable soundbites (“I was eatin’ my McDonald’s”) and lots of enthusiastic gestures. But as Miles Klee and Connor Simpson have noted, Ramsey’s heroism is quickly being overshadowed by the public’s desire to laugh at and autotune his story, and that’s a shame. Ramsey has become the latest in a fairly recent trend of “hilarious” black neighbors, unwitting Internet celebrities whose appeal seems rooted in a “colorful” style that is always immediately recognizable as poor or working-class.
Before Ramsey, there was Antoine Dodson, who saved his younger sister from an intruder, only to wind up famous for his flamboyant recounting of the story to a reporter. Since Dodson’s rise to fame, there have been others: Sweet Brown, a woman who barely escaped her apartment complex during a fire last year, and Michelle Clarke, who couldn’t fathom the hailstorm that rained down in her hometown of Houston, and in turn became “the next Sweet Brown.”
Granted, the buzzworthy tactic of reporters interviewing the most loquacious witnesses to a crime or other event is nothing new, and YouTube has countless examples of people of all ethnicities saying ridiculous things. One woman, for instance, saw fit to casually mention her breasts while discussing a local accident, while another man described a car crash with theatrical flair. Earlier this year, a “hatchet-wielding hitchhiker” named Kai matched Dodson’s fame with his astonishing account of rescuing a woman from a racist attacker. But none of those people have been subjected to quite the same level of derisive memeification as Brown, Clark, and now, perhaps, Ramsey—the inescapable echoes of “Hide yo’ kids, hide yo’ wife!” and “Kabooyaw,” the tens of millions of YouTube hits and cameos in other viral videos, even commercials.
It’s difficult to watch these videos and not sense that their popularity has something to do with a persistent, if unconscious, desire to see black people perform. Even before the genuinely heroic Ramsey came along, some viewers had expressed concern that the laughter directed at people like Sweet Brown plays into the most basic stereotyping of blacks as simple-minded ramblers living in the “ghetto,” socially out of step with the rest of educated America. Black or white, seeing Clark and Dodson merely as funny instances of random poor people talking nonsense is disrespectful at best. And shushing away the question of race seems like wishful thinking.
Ramsey is particularly striking in this regard, since, for a moment at least, he put the issue of race front and center himself. Describing the rescue of Amanda Berry and her fellow captives, he says, “I knew something was wrong when a little pretty white girl ran into a black man’s arms. Something is wrong here. Dead giveaway!”
The candid statement seems to catch the reporter off guard; he ends the interview shortly afterward. And it’s notable that among the many memorable things Ramsey said on camera, this one has gotten less meme-attention than most. Those who are simply having fun with the footage of Ramsey might pause for a second to actually listen to the man. He clearly knows a thing or two about the way racism prevents us from seeing each other as people.
Now that you know this is a thing, please stop sharing these memes. Poor Black people speaking candidly about various serious incidents isn’t a hilarious joke.
Elizabeth Martínez, a legendary civil rights and Chicano movement activist, has pointed out, along with her collaborator Arnoldo García of the National Network of Immigrant and Refugee Rights, that the new conditions that constitute neoliberalism and characterize economic development since the 1980s involve an almost total freedom of movement for capital, goods, and services—in other words, the absolute rule of the market. Public expenditures for social services have been drastically cut. There has been constant pressure for the elimination of government intervention and regulation of the market. Thus the privatization of gas and electricity, of health care, education and many other human services has emerged as the mode of increased profits for global corporations. Finally, Martínez and García point out, the concept of the public good and the very concept of “community” are being eliminated to make way for the notion of “individual responsibility.” This results in “pressuring the poorest people in a society to find solutions to their lack of health care, education, and social security all by themselves—then blaming them if they fail, as ‘lazy.’”
I would add yet another point to this definition of neo-liberalism: the flawed assumption that history does not matter. This idea, formulated by Francis Fukuyama as “The End of History,” also involves, as Dinesh D’Souza put it, “The End of Racism.” Both race and racism are profoundly historical. Thus if we discard biological and thus essentialist notions of “race” as fallacious, it would be erroneous to assume that we can also willfully extricate ourselves from histories of race and racism. Whether we acknowledge it or not, we continue to inhabit these histories, which help to constitute our social and psychic worlds.
Neoliberalism sees the market as the very paradigm of freedom, and democracy emerges as a synonym for capitalism, which has reemerged as the telos of history. In the official narratives of U.S. history, the historical victories of civil rights are dealt with as the final consolidation of democracy in the United States, having relegated racism to the dustbin of history. The path toward the complete elimination of racism is represented in the neoliberalist discourse of “color-blindness” and the assertion that equality can only be achieved when the law, as well as individual subjects, become blind to race. This approach, however, fails to apprehend the material and ideological work that race continues to do.
When obvious examples of racism appear to the public, they are considered to be isolated aberrations, to be addressed as anachronistic attributes of individual behavior. There have been a number of such cases in recent months in the United States. I mention the noose that was hung on a tree branch by white students at a school in Jena, Louisiana, as a sign that black students were prohibited from gathering under that tree. I can also allude to the public use of racist expletives by a well-known white comedian, the racist and misogynist language employed by a well-known radio host in referring to black women on a college basketball team, and finally, recent comments regarding the golfer Tiger Woods…
These comments were, of course, readily identified as familiar—exceedingly familiar—expressions of attitudinal racism that are now treated as anachronistic expressions that were once articulated with state-sponsored racisms. Such occurrences are now relegated to the private sphere and only become public when they are literally publicized. Whereas, during an earlier period in our history, such comments would have been clearly understood as linked to state policy and to the material practices of social institutions, they are now treated as individual and private irregularities, to be solved by punishing and reeducating the individual by teaching them color-blindness, by teaching them not to notice the phenomenon of race.
But if we see these individual eruptions of racism as connected to the persistence and further entrenchment of institutional and structural racism that hides behind the curtain of neoliberalism, their meanings cannot be understood as individual aberrations. In the cases we have discussed, the racism is explicit and blatant. There is no denying that these are racist utterances. What happens, however, when racism is expressed not through the words of individuals, but rather through institutional practices that are “mute,” to borrow the term Dana-Ain Davis uses, with respect to racism?
This is an excerpt from Chapter 10 of Angela Davis’ 2008 book: “The Meaning of Freedom and Other Difficult Dialogues”. You can read the full chapter here. The chapter is called: ‘Recognizing Racism in the Era of Neoliberalism’
FBI billboards not about Assata Shakur; it’s about repressing the black community
May 5, 2013Following the ludicrous announcement that the Obama administration has placed Assata Shakur on its “most wanted terrorist list”, the FBI has erected billboards in Newark, New Jersey announcing its recently increased $2 million dollar reward. However, any critically thinking person knows that these billboards are not about capturing Assata Shakur but sending a message to the rest of us.
Is Assata Shakur in New Jersey? No, she is not and the FBI and the Obama administration know exactly where she is, in Cuba where she has lived since being granted political asylum by its government in 1979 after escaping from prison.This is not about Assata Shakur, it is about sending a message to the Black community and those that live within it who stand up to police violence, oppression and murder of residents, one of the very reasons for the formation of the Black Panthers. It is about the political repression of those who advocate on the behalf of the many political prisons being held by the United States government often in torturous conditions. It is about sending a message to anyone who would take up arms in defense of life, liberty and true freedom in a country that is home to the largest prison population in the world which the federal government and various corporations use as slave labor. It is about sending a message to those that would dare stand up and point out that the US government is the most violent entity on the planet and one that commits acts of terrorism against non-white people and nations on behalf of maintaining the American imperialist status-quo.
So no one else thinks this is crazy? How does a billboard of a wanted terrorist lead you to the conclusion that specifically Newark cops are targeting the black community. Have you actually been to Newark ? Do you even live in NJ? Because I have and I do. So before you start saying how the BLACK cops of Newark is hating on the BLACK residence of Newark- how about we take a minute to really think about what you’re saying. -_- sorry, but this just really annoyed me.
It’s too early in the morning for your racist nonsense. Assata Shakur is not a terrorist. IDGAF what kind of racist nonsense you’ve been fed and have bought wholeheartedly. You are contributing to a tradition of no-think racism. If you want to educate yourself, I suggest reading a little bit about Shakur, COINTELPRO, the historic period of persecution that Assata has always lived in, and maybe even read some of her letters or her auto-biography. But please stop putting your simple BIGOTED ideology on display for the whole world to see. It’s raising my blood pressure. We’re familiar with it, we’ve heard you thinly veiled white-supremacists say this sort of thing for decades. You aren’t informing us of anything new. Thanks.
NAACP, clergy, and activists step-up activity in North Carolina against racist, oppressive austerity regime
May 6, 2013
Human-rights activists against the vision of oppression offered by North Carolina’s Republican leaders say they’re stepping up the nonviolent demonstrations until they are rightfully heard. The protesters are resisting the oppresive, backward, Republican-ledeffort to block Medicaid expansion, cut unemployment, cut tax credits for the working class and promote policies that defund education, among other grievances.
The NAACP and other activists say they’re ready to be arrested again Monday as they protest decisions of the General Assembly. A prayer demonstration against the harmful, destructive policies last Monday led to 17 arrests.
Rev. William Barber, president of the NC NAACP, said the evening will begin with a news conference at Davie Street Presbyterian Church where protesters will introduce themselves and lay out their disagreement over GOP lawmakers’ plans for Medicaid, unemployment benefits, the earned income tax credit, voting rights, public education and the state’s pre-kindergarten education program. He expects the crowd to include Triangle-area college professors and clergy from Charlotte. Barber said those who were arrested last week will again try to get into the legislative building. He hopes lawyers for the NAACP and General Assembly Police can work out a plan ahead of time to keep the protest peaceful. Barber said last week that the NAACP is planning a tour of up to 20 counties that are home to lawmakers most associated with Republican policies.
Source
Photo source/Huff post article with context
Open letter from NAACP protesters
i believe in living.
i believe in the spectrum
of Beta days and Gamma people.
i believe in sunshine.
In windmills and waterfalls,
tricycles and rocking chairs;
And i believe that seeds grow into sprouts.
And sprouts grow into trees.
i believe in the magic of the hands.
And in the wisdom of the eyes.
i believe in rain and tears.
And in the blood of infinity.
i believe in life.
And i have seen the death parade
march through the torso of the earth,
sculpting mud bodies in its path
i have seen the destruction of the daylight
and seen bloodthirsty maggots
prayed to and saluted
i have seen the kind become the blind
and the blind become the bind
in one easy lesson.
i have walked on cut grass.
i have eaten crow and blunder bread
and breathed the stench of indifference
i have been locked by the lawless.
Handcuffed by the haters.
Gagged by the greedy.
And, if i know anything at all,
it’s that a wall is just a wall
and nothing more at all.
It can be broken down.
i believe in living
i believe in birth.
i believe in the sweat of love
and in the fire of truth.
And i believe that a lost ship,
steered by tired, seasick sailors,
can still be guided home to port.
i believe in living by Assata Shakur
The first time I read this, I cried like a baby. Earlier this week Assata Shakur became the first woman ever to be named on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terror List. Additionally, they’ve placed billboards to try & hunt this beautiful human down, all around New Jersey, offering $2 million dollars for her capture,
Man dies in police raid on wrong house in Tennessee
April 23, 2013
A 61-year-old man was shot to death by police while his wife was handcuffed in another room during a drug raid on the wrong house in Lebanon, Tennessee.
Police admitted their mistake, saying faulty information from a drug informant contributed to the death of John Adams Wednesday night. They intended to raid the home next door.
The two officers, 25-year-old Kyle Shedran and 24-year-old Greg Day, were placed on administrative leave with pay.
“They need to get rid of those men, boys with toys,” said Adams’ 70-year-old widow, Loraine.
John Adams was watching television when his wife heard pounding on the door. Police claim they identified themselves and wore police jackets. Loraine Adams said she had no indication the men were police.
“I thought it was a home invasion. I said ‘Baby, get your gun!,” she said, sitting amid friends and relatives gathered at her home to cook and prepare for Sunday’s funeral.
Police say her husband fired first with a sawed-off shotgun and they responded. He was shot at least three times and died later at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.
Loraine Adams said she was handcuffed and thrown to her knees in another room when the shooting began.
“I said, ‘Y’all have got the wrong person, you’ve got the wrong place. What are you looking for?“‘
“We did the best surveillance we could do, and a mistake was made,” Lebanon Police Chief Billy Weeks said. “It’s a very severe mistake, a costly mistake. It makes us look at our own policies and procedures to make sure this never occurs again.” He said, however, the two policemen were not at fault.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is investigating. NAACP officials said they are monitoring the case. Adams was black. The two policemen are white.
Family members did not consider race a factor and Weeks agreed, but said the shooting will be “a major setback” for police relations with the black community.
“We know that, we hope to do everything we can to heal it,” Weeks said.
Johnny Crudup, a local NAACP official, said the organization wanted to make sure and would investigate on its own.
Weeks said he has turned the search warrant and all other evidence over to the bureau of investigation and District Attorney General Tommy Thompson. A command officer must now review all search warrants.
No one deserves to die during a drug raid. This story is heartbreaking & it’s not all that uncommon.
Question is in reference to this post.
Thanks for writing & asking!
The purpose is a call to act responsibly, given the relative advantage whites have in U.S. society. Instead of feeling guilty, build inclusive, safe spaces for ALL humans. Take a back seat and really, really follow the lead of some POC instead of just paying lip-service to some distant plight. Become involved, but don’t make the narrative about yourself (which is what expressions of white guilt do).
Your personal white journey to racial consciousness needs to be a mostly private one. It probably will require some apologizing and will certainly require a great deal of personal reflection - a life-long dedication to vigilantly, relentlessly questioning yourself, your actions, your thoughts, your culturally your inherited presuppositions about the world (it’s nature, it’s logic, for instance: that it isn’t outrageous, that you shouldn’t be screaming at the top of your lungs everyday about the grotesque injustice we live among, etc), your inherited cultural, ethnic, personal & societal histories, your words, your relationships, and your ideologies and relentlessly thinking about how those things affect others.
The quote is expressing the frustrating disconnect one feels when trying to address real problems that real people face that are not at all helped by some third party feeling pity or publicly displaying guilt.
It’s about taking action (anonymously if possible), making changes (to yourself & to society), while not just sitting around feeling sorry for yourself.
Three killed, 13 injured in weekend gun violence in Chicago
April 22, 2013
Three people have been killed and at least 13 others wounded in gun violence throughout the city since Friday afternoon.
Donald Holman, 37, was shot three times in the legs about 7:45 p.m. Friday in the 1100 block of North Menard Avenue, authorities said.
He was taken to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, where he later died.
Lucas Zimmerman, 34, was found unresponsive with multiple gunshot wounds in a convenience store parking lot in the 3900 block of North Kimball Avenue shortly after midnight Saturday.
Witnesses told police Zimmerman was shot in an alley in the 3300 block of West Irving Park Road before stumbling to the parking lot, police News Affairs Officer Hector Alfaro said. He was shot in the arm and face, Alfaro added. Zimmerman was pronounced dead at the scene.
A male was shot to death in the 1700 block of West 44th Street about 4:49 a.m. Monday in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, police said.
He was taken to John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County in critical condition, but died shortly thereafter, police said. The Cook County Medical Examiner’s office confirmed the death, though the male’s identity was withheld until his family could be notified.
At least 13 other people were wounded in gun violence throughout the city this weekend.
The most recent non-fatal shooting happened about 6:12 p.m. Sunday, when two men were shot in the Calumet Heights neighborhood. Both men were shot multiple times in the 9000 block of South Kingston Avenue, police said. They were both taken in “stable” condition to Advocate Trinity Hospital.
Most often the gun violence in Chicago disproportionately affects young people of color. Here is some background on the violence in Chicago:
Since 2008, more than 530 young people have been killed in Chicago, making it the youth murder capital of the country. The vast majority of these deaths—almost 80 percent—have happened in 22 Black and Brown majority neighborhoods. In 2010,nearly 700 Chicago school children were shot, and 66 of them died. Last year, 24 school children were killed and another 319 were injured by gunfire.
“It’s never stated, but clearly understood: If 530 white children had been killed in a five-year period in any city in the U.S., it would be considered a national emergency. When white children die, it prompts press conferences, soul-searching and demands for change. When Black children die, it is dismissed as “Black on Black” crime and met with calls for more police or finger-pointing at Black parents.” - Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
yo-soy-dulce asked: I went to the source for the massacre of the strawberry plantation immigrants but it doesn't work? :o
Original source (RT - working on and off)
Additional source 1 (LA Times)
Additional source 2 (HuffPost)
mushroomite asked: Ooh, I would have loved to have heard you go into detail with your own opinion in the last post with the acid in the pool.
I reblogged without commentary because there wasn’t much to add, and, as a white man myself, my opinion isn’t that relevant and could not possibly be as informed as those who have already commented, with histories & personal experiences that are exactly relevant to the post.
I agree completely with the outrage & confusion expressed by knowledgeequalsblackpower. The same shit happens every time we post anything about racism that goes kinda viral. As soon as it leaves the direct-followers circle, and starts getting out into the larger tumbl-verse, ignorant (almost always white) people start making arrogant, revisionist, apologist, unconsciously (I hope) racist remarks like “we’re not all like that” or “that’s bad but…” without recognizing that they don’t have shit to say about racism until they’ve lived a whole life-time of being forced to deal with it & think about it.
