Below is a documentary shown on Al Jazeera’s People and Power titled: White Power USA.  It reveals the links between the NSM neo-nazi’s, anti-immigration activists and members of the Tea Party.  A must see documentary.

Here is the documentary description from Al Jazeera.

Almost a year ago the inauguration of President Barack Obama was hailed as a turning point in US race relations. The country was said to be entering a new era of post-racial politics, on the path to a future of greater diversity and tolerance.

But while crowds flocked to Washington to witness the swearing in, others were refusing to join the party. Racially motivated threats against Obama rose to new heights in the first months of his presidency, with the US seeing nine high-profile race killings in 2009.

Meanwhile white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups claim their membership is growing and that visits to their websites are increasing.

Is the racial undercurrent that has long structured US politics reasserting itself?

Filmmakers Rick Rowley and Jacquie Soohen went inside the white nationalist movement to investigate.

Some of the images seen and opinions heard in the film are disturbing.

A new list was created to facilitate relations between LGBTQI people and their friends around the world interested in solidarity with Palestinians by learning, promoting and actualizing the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel.

About The BDS Initiative
The Nakba (1948’s ethnic cleansing of Palestine during the formation of Israel) still occurs for 61+ years to this very day. Millions of Palestinian are living as stateless refugees. Gaza is the world’s largest open prison, forcefully separated even from the West Bank. The West Bank itself is divided into separate segregated areas, sometimes even sole cities - by the apartheid wall, apartheid (Jewish only) roads, and a set of blockades and checkpoints.

[Read more →]

 Full text can be found at IllVox

Reclaiming Choice for Native Women

By Jessica Yee, Racialicious

June 22, 2009 – 8:00am

I am Native. And I’m pro-choice. Many people seem to think this is an oxymoron – but to me, it makes perfect sense. I have unraveled much of the oppression I was forced to swallow and internalize over the years, which obstructed my ability to wholly see that concepts of “choice” and having “options” in our sexual and reproductive lives are really not new things at all. Moreover, I am entitled to advocate for choice from within my culture, which has always valued women’s choices and decision-making.  First and second wave feminism did not “give” my people reproductive rights; in fact those of us in Native communities had them a long time ago. And how “pro-choice” identities play out in our communities now probably looks a lot different than what most people think. [Read the rest here]

Middletown, Cheshire, Plainfield, Hartford … It seems that the media and many other complicit folks and entities seem to still not get that ALL LIFE HAS VALUE!  Cornell Lewis, Francis Davila and myself had attempted to bring attention to the media’s complicity in white washing urban vs surburban issues, especially when they come to violence (click here) and I certainly have written on this issue more than once (click here).  Helen Ubinas recently wrote an excellent piece (pasted below and found here), making similar points in regards to the murder of  Justin-Jinich relative to Ashley Peoples or Tiana Notice.  Sadly it seems like no matter how much things change the more they remain the same.

When Will We Treat All Murder Victims Equally?

Helen Ubinas of the Hartford Courant

‘Buzzards,” the marshal said as he looked at the growing group of reporters outside the Middletown courthouse the other day.

The man accused of gunning down Wesleyan University student Johanna Justin-Jinich was due inside a third-floor courtroom. The appearance was brief; Stephen Morgan didn’t even enter a plea. [Read more →]

Film: Two Towns of Jasper

When: Fri, February 20, 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Where: Wrench in the Works, located at 861 Main Street, Willimantic, CT 06226

In 1998, a black man named James Byrd, Jr. was dragged to death from the back of a pickup truck by 3 white men outside of the town of Jasper, Texas. This award-winning film is about the effects of this crime on the people of the town. Using a black film crew to film the black community and a white film crew to film the white community, the film makers are able to depict the very different realities of each. [Read more →]

MCC Hartford Celebrates Black History Month

Film and Conversation at MCC Hartford “Brother Outsider ~ The Bayard Rustin Story”

Sunday, February 15th at 5 PM, 155 Wyllys Street, Hartford, CT^*

[Read more →]

From Uppity Brown Woman’s Blog

Colour blindness in North America. For some people, it evokes thoughts of the physical condition. For others, it evokes feelings of resentment. For yet another set of other people, it evokes the one true solution to racism. This colour blindness, in short, is to see, judge, and evaluate a person on their merits and actions, not on their race or colour of their skin.

That sounds like a good idea. In fact, that’s a great idea. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everyone was judged based on the shit they did instead of people attributing it to their race? Recently, I heard someone vociferate that exact idea: race should not exist. I can get on board with that. The way to do away with the existence of race is to ignore it - no specialized groups, programs, or services directed towards anything that may take race into consideration. In short, to get rid of race is to not pay attention to it. To solve racism and make race as relevant as the shape of your bellybutton is to be colour blind. That’s the proposed solution I hear quite a bit from white people who think they are doing anti-racist work. Admittedly, I stormed out halfway through, so perhaps this person was telling a bad joke, but this is something that I’ve heard enough times to doubt it was sarcasm gone wrong.

Colour blindness is not a solution, it’s an endpoint. It’s a destination we must arrive at. [Read more →]

By 365gay Newscenter Staff

A study of LGBT students in the nation’s schools has found that students of color are the most vulnerable.

The study - Shared Differences: The Experiences of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Students of Color in Our Nation’s Schools - was prepared by GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.

It documents the experiences of over 2,000 LGBT middle and high school students of color who were African American, Latino, Asian, Native American, and multiracial. [Read more →]

FUNERAL PROCESSION AND SOLIDARITY RALLY for Athens, Gaza, and against all state violence.
Wear funeral garb. Bring coffins, flowers, or just your beautiful selves. (Or possibly stuffed animals that you may be willing to part from.)

We will meet FRIDAY, JANUARY 9TH (note, changed from original date posted) at NOON at BURNSIDE PARK. We will march to various different sites of state violence and the military-industrial complex in a show of solidarity and in memory of those whose lives have been lost. From the streets of Athens to the war in Gaza, we stand in solidarity with all victims of state violence— at home and abroad.

Called for by What Queer?! Providence’s radical queer collective.

Solidarity,
~ What Queer?!

PROVIDENCE, RI

Show your solidarity with the uprisings in Athens, and the people of Gaza.
We are planning a funeral procession in solidarity with all victims of war
and state violence on Saturday, January 10th, through the streets of
Providence. We will speak at various sites of state violence throughout
the city. Anyone interested in planning or speaking please come to a
planning meeting Monday January 5th at 6pm. Email whatqueer@gmail.com for
info, even if you can’t make it on the 5th.

Called for by What Queer?! a radical queer collective in Providence.
Please forward widely.

On Tuesday, December 16th, there was a rally held in Boston in solidarity with the uprisings all over Greece. We protested outside the Greek consulate in a show of solidarity with all vicitims of state violence. This is the speech that I gave. (If you’ve been reading my posts you might notice that some of it was lifted from my speech at the Transgender Day of Remembrance.)

Dear comrades, it’s incredible to be here today! My name is Saffo, and I am a radical queer tranny from Providence, Rhode Island. I am part of the upcoming What Queer? radical queer collective in Providence. As I’m sure you all know, on Saturday, December 6th, 2008, the cops in Athens shot and killed a 15-year-old boy named Alexandros Grigoropoulos. I want to start by offering a moment of silence for the memory of Alexandros. (Thank you). To many of us, the violence of the Greek police is something that rings true to our own lives and experiences with the police in the United States and elsewhere. It is, in part, this commonality that brings us here today. This solidarity that we feel for those who are brutalized by the state, by any state, anywhere. We know that this kind of violence happens every day. But this time, the people struck back! These are incredible times we are living in. For instance, if you had asked me 2 years ago if I thought that today we’d see a union successfully occupying a factory in the United States, I would have said no way. I would have said, things like that happened in Argentina, but they would never happen here. But they did it! If you had asked me a year ago, would a group of queers ever dare to take direct action against a right-wing churhch, I would have said no. But they did! So here’s to the workers in Chicago. Here’s to Queers Bash Back! And here’s to the masses of anarchists, university students, high school students, and youth who have taken to the streets in Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras, Crete, and all over Greece. It’s looking more and more every day that a revolution may really be just around the corner. [Read more →]

November 17, 2008 (See more @ saffolicious.blogspot.com.)

Hello everyone. My name is Saffo and I am trans. Some of you may know me by my birth name, Fokion. As many of you will already know, to many trans people, changing our names is an important rite of passage. Coming out as trans, choosing a new name and transitioning my identity has been a difficult, beautiful, emotionally exhausting, revitalizing and spiritually empowering process. Some of you who have known me for years have struggled to remember to call me by my new name, and by my new preferred pronoun. I assure you that it’s been even more difficult for me, adjusting to a new name, to a new relationship with the world. But it is so important and I appreciate the many people in my life who have supported me through this struggle, as well as the countless many trans and gender variant people who have struggled and fought so hard before me— many of whom have sacrificed their lives for the chance to name themselves. After all, today is the day of remembrance, so I must remember with a sense of gratitude and humility those who have fought before me and made the ultimate sacrifice.

So what’s in a name? Many of us live out our lives with names that were given to us by our parents, which may or may not have any real meaning or significance. Your name is perhaps the most important, most deeply engrained social marker you will have in your life. It claims to define you— and yet most people did not choose their name, or may not feel that it has any real meaning to them. Coming out as trans has given me a sense of solidarity with people everywhere who have chosen to rename themselves. Similarly, it is through this politics of naming that we are also able to name the forces of violence that oppress us. Transphobia, Heterosexism, Racism, Classism, Imperialism, Ageism, Ableism, Capitalism, Sexual Assault and Violence, the Prison Industrial Complex. The list goes on. Naming the systems of violence that oppress us and those around us is a vital first step in our various struggles for liberation. And so it is through naming both ourselves, our communities, and the forces of violence that oppress us that we are able to fight back. [Read more →]

In the evening hours of Saturday, November 22nd, anonymous
BB! Memphis operatives called in to request that a hearse,
a casket, and a dozen pink daisies be delivered to Officer
Bridges McRae, Duanna Johnson's attacker, as he dressed for
church on Sunday.

A note attached to the flowers read;

"See you soon...
-Duanna
BB!"
---
Officer Bridges McRae is responsible for beating Duanna
Johnson with handcuffs and fists just months prior to her
"mysterious" death. It is clear that McRae and others in
the notoriously anti-trans/queer Memphis Police Department
had it out for Duanna. Bash Back! News, clandestine queers,
and above ground activists know that the MPD murdered Duanna.
Anyone who denies this fact is living the bubbble that Bash
Back! is dedicated to bursting.

Great post on Buzzflash by Tim Wise, who has written extensively on white privilege and racism:

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Tim Wise

For those who still can’t grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because “every family has challenges,” even as black and Latino families with similar “challenges” are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay. [Read more →]

Statement from the PSL (Party for Socialism and Liberation candidates Gloria La Riva and Eugene Puryear.

Since its inception, U.S. capitalist society has been marked by extreme racism. This has been the predominant tool used by a tiny class of super-rich capitalists to keep the exploited, divided and fighting each other. That has been true since the beginning of slavery in the United States in 1607 and continued with the evolution of industrial capitalism. That system allowed the ultra-rich to grow richer and kept a section of the white workers functioning as their pawns. The aim of racism is to divide and weaken the working class, derive super-profits from the lowest paid workers and force down the wages of all workers. [Read more →]