links for 2011-08-25

Q. You have never moved in the circles of governmental power in your country. When you were a girl, was it even possible for a black woman to dream of becoming a minister?
A. Not just when I was a girl. It was only a short time ago that we managed to become respected, to have status. Among common people there is this mentality, and this we have seen in the social networks during the second round of the election of President Humala. There were terrible, racist things said on the networks. Racism against Indians. Strong racism. It was regrettable and sad that in this country there still are people who despise blacks and Indians and natives of the Amazon.

"In 2007, the Cherokee Nation ruled it would no longer recognize the descendants of freedmen as members of the Cherokee Nation. But in January, Cherokee Nation District Judge John Cripps ruled in favor of the freedmen descendants, citing an 1866 treaty between the United States and the tribe that granted equal rights to the freedmen.

"In Monday’s 4-1 decision, the court maintained that citizenship was extended to the freedmen by an 1866 Cherokee constitutional amendment — not the treaty — and that Judge Cripps did not have the authority to overturn its results."

"Members of the Jena Six are determined to move away – and learn – from their controversial pasts. They say they want to be something one day: A sports agent, a lawyer, a military man. Those interviewed said they don't run into problems when they return to Jena to visit family.

"I've tried to wash those memories out of the back of my head," said Jessie Ray Beard, who was 14 when he was arrested in the beating. "I have other things to concentrate on."

Oooh…reality is stranger than fiction. – LDP "On Tuesday afternoon rebels invaded Muammar Gaddafi’s compound, extracting many strange and opulent artifacts that seemed to perfectly symbolize a peculiar dictator (and in some cases donning golden military caps for interviews with Western media.) But one of the strangest items found was a photo album containing images of former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice."

"The nation's first black president has hung a painting with the N-word outside the Oval Office, in a nod to the civil rights movement, reports Politico. President Obama last month had Norman Rockwell's "The Problem We All Live With" installed in the White House; the painting shows a black child, 6-year-old Ruby Bridges, en route to her newly integrated New Orleans school as the wall behind her shows graffiti including the racial epithet and "KKK," as well as a splattered tomato."