Leave The Muslim Community Center Alone, People. Geez.

This is one of those things that’s just like. . .”Oh, god . . .really? No. Stop that. You can’t mean that”.

A big rally is being planned to protest the construction of a Mosque and Islamic Community Center near the site of Ground Zero.

One of the opponents is quoted as saying “‘If the Japanese decided to open a cultural centre across from Pearl Harbour, that would be insensitive. If the Germans opened a Bach choral society across from Auschwitz, even after all these years, that would be an insensitive setting.”

Considering that Bach died in 1750, I have a feeling that few Polish Jews are holding him personally responsible for World War II. But even that’s not the point.

Obviously, building a mosque near ground zero, as stated by the leader of the project, “sends the opposite statement to what happened on 9/11″. It shows that American Muslims are working as hard as they can to disprove the crazy stereotypes about Islam that have become rampant since 9/11. This protest is a depressing sign that they have a pretty big mountain to climb if that’s going to happen.

Posted by:

Rachel Bishop

Who shall Bell the Cat Now?

Have you ever been shook to your core?

Or, experienced a feeling so impactful that it makes your gut wrench?

This was the type of blow that I felt just moments ago. It was as if someone had punched me in my stomach so hard, that it had taken all of my breath away. Huh, huh, huh, I even pant now, as if I just crossed the finish line of a five mile marathon.

The loop of CNN’s Tony Harris plays constantly in my head. “Lady and gentlemen, I am sad to announce the death of civil rights leader, Benjamin Lawson Hooks.” What? Are you serious? Not Mr. Hooks? Not the greatest past President of the NAACP in post-modern history? Not the last living one who helped Thurgood Marshall to develop the NAACP’s famous litigation strategies? Not the one who took the reins of leadership from civil rights great, Roy Wilkins? Tony, you should know better than that; I mean that is not the type of news that you just spring on a brother.  How can he be? Mr. Hooks is like the grandfather of the NAACP, and having grown up in that association, that made him like a grandfather to me.

… Continue Reading

Posted by:

Jabari Paul

AVATAR: The Good, the Bad and the Gray by Adrienne Maree Brown

League Alum and current executive director of the Ruckus Society, Adrienne Maree Brown, wrote a really compelling review of Avatar over at her blog http://adriennemareebrown.net/. We thought we’d give you a taste of the awesomeness.

The Good:

The ecological analysis, that the world is a web of complete interconnectedness, of life…that life is precious, that a planet and everything on it is connected…this is very much what i believe. it is what i have spent the last several years trying to slow down enough to experience, to lean in close enough to smell and feel, to embody in my work. they made it phosphorescent, magical, lighter than life. but this planet can feel like that, too.

The Bad:

I hated that the strong female indigenous lead, who teaches the human avatar Jake Sully to speak, eat and live, has to step back and jump behind him (physically and hierachically) after they mate, when danger strikes. its not for long, and she comes back into her strength before the end, but that moment was too alpha for me.

The Gray:

Men, particularly white men, need to hear and see stories that help them (and anyone else engaged in violence and dominance behavior) recognize they have a part to play in a new way of living, and it requires a release of the whole dynamic of power over others.

But how does that message get delivered? Even if it’s in 3D, I don’t know how many millions will turn out to see an eco-justice anti-war tale about mother earth rising up against the military.

And since the story is so deeply a story about our relationship to this planet, our obliteration of our natural resources, our disrespect of indigenous cultures and forgetting our own indigenous stories, our displacement and destruction of the only place we have, the only water that we know exists and can sustain us…since it is SO close to home…can we perhaps as people with analysis, see it as a step in a process.

If you’d like more, you have to go to AMB’s blog here.

Posted by:

The Editor

Understanding Unequal Unemployment

The unemployment rates you hear on the news are misleading. The overall unemployment rate is currently at a shocking high of 9.6%–but the ethnic breakdown of this figure is still more disturbing.

According to a study released July 15 by The Economic Policy Institute, minorities are significantly more likely to be jobless than their white counterparts. Part of this can be attributed to the recession, which has taken its toll on non-white communities the worst.

Yet even this cannot account for the shocking unemployment gap that exists. African-Americans typically suffer unemployment rates that are twice as high as their white peers, while Hispanics come in at 1.5% more than Whites. For example, currently in Alabama there is a 5.8% unemployment rate for whites while for African-Americans it jumps to 15.1%! In Louisiana, African-Americans were three times more likely to be jobless. And the same is true for Hispanics, who’s unemployment rates are suspected to be higher than reported (it is thought that many illegal aliens would have feared taking part in this study).

The bad news is that the unemployment gap between whites and minorities is increasing. The good news, however, is that there are tentative plans to improve the situation by imposing a small tax on stocks to create extra resources for job creation in these hard hit communities.

Find out more about the inequalities of unemployment rates, and how you can GET INVOLVED at http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE56E83L20090716.

Posted by:

Yolanda Clatworthy

Killing Outreach Programs (Indirectly) Kills Kids

It’s unthinkable that a kid is killed in a drive-by while at an Anti-Violence Rally. Yet that’s precisely what happened to 13 year old Tamrah Leonard in Trenton, New Jersey last Sunday! Abomination! How is society not outraged at this heinous act?

Sadly, it was not an isolated incident.The economic recession has had an adverse affect on homicide rates, which are skyrocketing. Homicide is now the leading cause of death among young African American youth, and the number two cause of death for all other youth aged 10-24. Dire straits mean that desperate youth are becoming increasingly likely to resort to violence. At the same time, decreased funding means that many after-school programs–which have been proven to get youth off the streets and lower crime rates–are at risk of being reduced or eradicated entirely.

Thankfully, outreach programs provide hope that change is on the horizon. Find out more about these matters of life-or-death, and WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP, at http://www.campusprogress.org/fieldreport/4284/killing-the-programs-we-need-most.

Posted by:

Yolanda Clatworthy