As we approach Muhammad Ali’s funeral this Friday, the political class and the newly-conscious sports reporters are now clamoring to express their love of Ali – despite decades of demonizing a man who stood for his principles against the U.S. war machine. Sentenced to prison for refusing to enter the military in 1967 and then having…
Commentaries
Lester Thurow (1938-2016) and the Bernie Sanders Campaign
Last week we saw the passing of Lester Thurow, a prominent MIT economist and dean, who called attention in the 1990s to the growing inequality in wealth and income that is now the new normal. Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, states that Thurow “was one…
Hillary Clinton and the Origin of “Super-Predator”
At a recent South Carolina fund-raiser for Hillary Clinton, “Black Lives Matter” activist Ashley Williams called on Clinton to explain her 1996 statement that there are certain “kinds of kids that are called ‘super-predators.’ No conscience, no empathy, we can talk about why they ended up that way, but first we have to bring them to…
“Patriots” and “Occupiers” at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge
In case any of us missed it, four White people continue to “occupy” Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, Oregon. This so-called “occupation” should not be confused with the Occupy Movement, which drew attention to economic inequality for 99% of population and is now connected to the rise in popularity of Bernie Sanders. The…
Sandra Bland and Smoking While Black (continued…)
As you may recall, last July a White Texas state trooper pulled over Sandra Bland, a Black woman, on bogus grounds and became enraged when she refused to stop smoking a cigarette (“Sandra Bland and Smoking While Black”). Based on video evidence of the encounter, the trooper was indicted this week on charges of perjury,…
“Statement Concerning the Climate of Political Intolerance”
[Note: I look forward to learning how other colleges, governing bodies, and community groups are responding…MV] A voice vote was taken on the statement below at the December 9, 2015, meeting of the Evergreen State College Faculty and passed by overwhelming yes vote with one abstention. We, members of the faculty at The Evergreen State…
“Black Women Matter”
Last week an Oklahoma City police officer was found guilty of sexually assaulting 13 Black women while he was on the job. The officer was finally brought to tears when the jury recommended 263 years in prison. Outside the courtroom, supporters of the women, as the New York Times put it, “updated an evocative phrase by…
Police Chiefs Address a Broken System
It’s been 15 months since unarmed African American adolescent Michael Brown was killed by White Ferguson, Missouri, police officer Darren Wilson and the Lost Voices of Ferguson and the Black Lives Matter social justice movement forced national attention on America’s broken criminal justice system. Black Lives Matter continues to inspire numerous long-overdue social justice…
It Takes a Video: Police Violence Against School Children
The recent student-recorded video of a White male police officer slamming a Black female adolescent sitting in her school desk to the floor while her classmates and teachers looked on grabbed the nation’s attention about the unproductive presence of police in schools. This past July Mother Jones magazine documented how police in schools (or by…
The Master Narrative: No “Slaves,” Only “Workers” in Texas Schoolbooks
An attentive 15-year old let his mother know that a required Texas social studies book claimed that people of African descent brought forcible to the Americas to labor for Whites were identified as “workers” rather than “slaves” in a section devoted to “immigration.” Mom took to social media, Black Lives Matter…