links for 2011-06-16

"Get ready to be repulsed with this new political attack ad funded by the right-wing political action committee Turn Right USA.

"Janice Hahn, Los Angeles City Councilwoman and Democratic Congressional candidate, has been criticized by opponents for supporting the work of community anti-gang violence organizers. In this video Turn Right USA turned Hahn into a red-eyed devil stripper while black men surround her and say, 'Yeah, gimme your cash, bitch, so we can shoot up the street. Give me your cash, bitch, so we can buy some more heat.'”

"As despicable as it sounds, it’s worse to see."

"While writing his book, Golden spoke with many Asian American applicants who were denied admission to elite universities despite their stellar credentials. 'A perception exists that Asians are focused only on math and science and do not contribute to class discussions,' he said. 'In my interviews, I haven’t found that to be true at all. My interviewees all had a wide range of interests and were very qualified individuals.' In his research, he found applicants with incredibly high SAT scores and grades, and who were also accomplished musicians, athletes, community service volunteers and authors; all were rejected from Ivy League schools. “The attitude of admissions is a monolithic view of Asian culture.'"

"This billboard campaign is drawing on the Margaret Sanger myth, which says that the founder of Planned Parenthood was a 'devout racist' who created the organization so that minority children would die.

"Sanger, though, was actually an elitist, who, according to records of her writings, thought aborting the less fortunate would be a more benevolent idea than continuing a pregnancy. She advocated for contraception, not abortion, and her eugenic philosophy encompassed the poor, mentally ill, and disabled – regardless of color.

"According to AGI, 75 percent of women cited finances as their reason for having an abortion. ABC recently reported statistics, which show that while the abortion rate has dropped 8 percent, it has disproportionately risen 18 percent among women living in poverty, proving that this is not a race issue, but a class issue."

"In a recent Italian documentary Standing Army, the late author and Nation contributor Chalmers Johnson says, 'The unit of empire in the classic European empires was the colony. The unit for the American empire is not the colony, it’s the military base.… Things that can’t go on forever, don’t. That’s where we are today.'

"The bases—isolated from the host communities and, as Gusterson writes, 'generating resentment against [their] prostitution, environmental damage, petty crime, and everyday ethnocentrism'—face growing opposition from local citizens."

"Obama did not publicly acknowledge the demand to free political prisoners (although it is being reported that a Puerto Rican Senator did ask him to release Oscar Lopez). The President did not acknowledge the violence and repression against protesters nor the violence and repression against the island’s queer community that in the last year alone has stolen 18 lives. The President did not acknowledge that while he is using Puerto Rico as a litmus test for the Latino vote, Puerto Rico has an active Memorandum of Agreement activating Secure Communities since December of 2010, which no doubt targets the growing Dominican community on the island. Talk about divide and conquer politics at it’s worse. Coming to the island with outstretched hand while continuing to promote the politics of colonization and deportation."

"That is part of the gift of Fred's life. He provides an entry point to another aspect of this community. The memory we bring forth as First Nations people is of a time and way of life where LGBTQI folks were accepted. Fred's legacy goes beyond tacit racism and cultural appropriation because it provides us with an opportunity to see each other reflected in a range of common experiences including violence, targeting due to our sexual orientation and gender identity, living in small spaces of safety and being loved by family for who we are. These common experiences should challenge all of us to to see our connection more than our distance and differences. The legacy of Fred's life and the belief in our ancestors shouldn't just live in our memories, it should exist in our every day practice of patience, love, acceptance and non-judgement."

"It was discussed openly and in whispers, over the phone and in the church pews. When it was brought up at school, the curious were quickly shushed. Eventually, the whole thing got pushed aside by other concerns, a bit of nastiness better forgotten, or judged never to have occurred at all.

"But Madison Phillips says it is true. He says that he and his mother, Annette Singleton, both black, were turned away from a church shelter by a white woman on the afternoon of April 27, the day of the tornadoes. And within hours, Ms. Singleton and two of Madison’s young friends, who had been huddling with him in his house within yards of that church, were dead."

"This time, instead of creating an ethnic enemy, Congressman King is creating a religious enemy. Because of prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of Republican leadership, King is targeting the entire Muslim-American community. Similar to my experience, they are become increasingly marginalized and isolated by our policies.

"Never mind the fact that many were born in America and have no allegiance to their ancestors' native homeland. Never mind the fact that they are patriotic Americans and law-abiding citizens. Never mind the fact that they are constructively contributing to the American economy. Irrespective of all this, millions of Americans have become the new enemy, with no cause and no crime."