I’m one of the Central Park Five. Donald Trump won’t leave me alone.

Yusef Salaam, one of the Central Park Five, is speaking out, and has an article in The Washington Post. Some people will remember this, will remember when this happened, the divisiveness among people, the distrust, those who were already predisposed towards racism grabbing on to it, as if it were the final proof that no black man could ever be trusted around any woman, but especially not a white woman. One person who jumped the highest on the bandwagon of bigotry was Donald Trump. He took out a massive, full page ad, declaring their guilt, and demanding the return of the death penalty in very large type. Most people, after learning those young men had been ruthlessly railroaded, tortured, and wrongly convicted and imprisoned, would at least attempt to mumble some sort of excuse, then have the grace to shut the fuck up. But we all know that isn’t Asshole Donald’s way. No. Why do that when you can continue to insist you were right? As Mr. Salaam points out though, it’s much worse that when it comes to Trump. This man is, if not a bonafide maniac, a man with maniacal views and much worse solutions when it comes to all those he sees as problems.

During our trial, it seemed like every New Yorker had an opinion. But no one took it further than Trump. He called for blood in the most public way possible. Trump used his money to take out full-page ads in all of the city’s major newspapers, calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty in New York.

During that time, our families tried to shield us from what was going on in the media, but we still found out about Trump’s ad. My initial thought was, “Who is this guy?” I was terrified that I might be executed for a crime I didn’t commit.

Thirteen years later, in 2002, we were exonerated. Matias Reyes eventually confessed to the rape and was definitively linked to the victim by his DNA. New York paid us $41 million in 2014 for our false imprisonment.

Trump has never apologized for calling for our murder. In fact, despite all evidence to the contrary, he’s still convinced that we were guilty. When the Republican nominee was recently asked about the Central Park Five, he said, “They admitted they were guilty.” In a statement to CNN’s Miguel Marquez, Trump wrote, “The police doing the original investigation say they were guilty. The fact that that case was settled with so much evidence against them is outrageous. And the woman, so badly injured, will never be the same.” It’s further proof of his bias, racism and inability to admit that he’s wrong.

When I heard Trump’s latest proclamation, it was like the worst feeling in the world. I felt as if I couldn’t breathe. Since I was 15, my life has never been my own. I had no control over what happened to me. Being in the spotlight makes me wary and self-conscious again. I am overwhelmed with a nagging fear that an overzealous Trump supporter might take matters into his or her hands.

Doing something simple like picking up dinner for the family or going to the aquarium takes on a whole new wrinkle. I’m always looking over my shoulder, keeping an eye out for people who stare too long. Like a soldier always on high alert, I feel as if I can never enjoy myself fully, with all of the adrenaline that comes with that. It’s a scary feeling.

In some ways, I feel like I’m on trial all over again. Like Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown, young men who were killed and then crucified in the media, I know what it is to be a young black man without a voice. Even though we were found innocent by a court of law, we are still guilty in the court of public opinion. That brings a certain kind of stress.

I realize, too, that I’m not the only victim. Trump has smeared dozens of people, with no regard for the truth. And he has backed a “law and order” system that would systematically target minorities. Trump says he would like to re-institute practices like New York’s “stop and frisk,” a policy proven to be unconstitutional and unjust. When we hear that he is going to be a “law and order president,” a collective chill goes down the spine of those of us who have been the victims of this “law and order.”

Black people across America know that because of the color of our skin, we are guilty before proven innocent. As a result, sometimes we lose the best years of our lives. Sometimes we lose our actual lives. We must not let this man ascend to the highest office in the land when he has always proven that he lets neither facts nor humanity lead his steps.

Full article at The Washington Post.

Beyond Disappointment.

Colin Kaepernick and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. AP photo.

Colin Kaepernick and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. AP photo.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg doesn’t often speak publicly, but while promoting her new book, My Own Words, she used her words to admonish Colin Kaepernick and other athletes taking a knee or engaging in forms of protest in an interview with Yahoo today.

“I think it’s really dumb of them,” the veteran justice told Katie Couric in the Yahoo News video. “Would I arrest them for doing it, no.”

Ginsburg seems to be on the side of those who feel the actions of San Francisco 49ers quarterback Kaepernick, Seattle Reign soccer player Megan Rapinoe, and scores of other athletes across the country are inappropriate, while failing to see the purpose of the protest themselves.

Comparing the kneeling to flag burning, Ginsburg called it “a terrible thing to do,” but said the protesters are within their rights and the law, as long as their actions don’t “jeopardize the health or well-being of other people.”

When Couric followed up for clarification, Ginsburg went further, saying,  “If they want to be stupid, there is no law that should be preventive; if they want to be arrogant, there is no law that prevents them from that.”

Stupid? Arrogant? Really. I don’t see kneeling as an act of arrogance, no matter which direction you view it from. The way I see it, kneeling is emphasising the position all of us peoples who continue to be dominated are already in, and have been in that position for hundreds of years. It’s hardly a patch on the colonial-minded arrogance of ownership still sported by most Americans, and many of them proudly so. How is it stupid? It’s calling attention to a most deep, serious, and pervasive problem, without disruption. One could argue there’s a lack of respect, and yes, I’d agree, there’s a lack of respect for domination, control, a sense of ownership, a demand for servility, the embrace of racism as a good, and the ongoing murders of the dominated peoples. None of those things deserve respect, in any way.

This is incredibly disappointing from someone like Bader Ginsburg, and beyond disappointing. Goes to show how deeply implicit racism inhabits us all, no matter how liberal, open minded and fair we might consider ourselves.

Via The Advocate, full story here.

We’re the New GOP!

A whiter future: pro- and anti-Trump supporters clash outside Trump Towers in New York. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

A whiter future: pro- and anti-Trump supporters clash outside Trump Towers in New York. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

Every few weeks, William Johnson, the chairman of the white nationalist American Freedom Party (AFP), holds a lunch for members, the goal being to make America a white ethnostate, a project that begins with electing Donald Trump. This week, it’s at a grand old French restaurant called Taix, in Echo Park, Los Angeles – an odd choice on the face of it. Echo Park is a trendy hood. It’s hipster and heavily Hispanic. In fact, given the predominance of Latino kitchen staff in this city, it may be wise to hold off on the Trump talk until the food arrives.

“About three months ago,” Johnson begins, “I was talking to Richard Spencer about how we need to plan for a Trump victory.” Spencer is another prominent white nationalist – he heads the generic-sounding National Policy Institute. “I said: ‘I want Jared Taylor [of American Renaissance] as UN Ambassador, and Kevin MacDonald [an evolutionary psychologist] as secretary of health and Ann Coulter as homeland security!’ And Spencer said: ‘Oh Johnson, that’s a pipe dream!’ But today, he’d no longer say that, because if Trump wins, all the establishment Republicans, they’re gone… They hate him! So who’s left? If we can lobby, we can put our people in there.”

Around the table five young men, roughly half Johnson’s age (he’s 61), nod and lean in. They all wear suits and ties, address the waiter as “sir” and identify as the “alt right”, the much-discussed nouvelle vague of racism. “Are you guys familiar with the Plum Book?” Johnson asks. “It’s plum because of the colour, but also because of the plum positions – there are 20,000 jobs in that book that are open to a new administration.”

“So we need to identify our top people!” says Eric, one of the men at the table.

“Just anyone with a college degree!” Johnson says.

“Right.” Eric is practically bouncing in his seat with excitement. “We need to get the word out. We are the new GOP!”

[…]

It’s not every day that a brown journalist gets to sit in on a white-nationalist strategy meeting. But these are strange times. Racism is trending. Like Brexit, Trump has normalised views that were once beyond the pale, and groups like the AFP have grown bold. Their man’s stubby orange fingers are within reach of actual power, so maybe it’s time to emerge from the shadows at last.

I first met Johnson in May after he signed up as a Trump delegate before being swiftly struck off by the campaign when the press found out. He’s a surprising figure. An avid environmentalist, fluent in Japanese and, in person, not the bitter old racist I’d expected but rather a jolly Mormon grandfather, bright eyed and chuckling, a Wind in the Willows character. Eric is even more unexpected. Tall and impassioned, he came to racism via hypnotherapy, of all things. He sells solar panels for a living and practises yoga. Together with his friends Matt and Nathan, who are also here at lunch, he runs an alt-right fraternity in Manhattan Beach – “a beer and barbecues thing”. They’re called the Beach Goys. “We’re starting a parody band,” he beams. “We’ve found a drummer!”

Between them they represent two poles of a racist spectrum, young and old. And judging from this lunch, it’s the millennials who are the more extreme. Johnson wants white nationalists to appear less mean and he finds the “JQ”, the Jewish Question, archaic. But Eric loves the meanness of the alt right. “We’re the troll army!” he says. “We’re here to win. We’re savage!” And antisemitism is non-negotiable. In fact, he’d like to clear up a misnomer about the alt right, propagated by the Breitbart columnist Milo Yiannopoulos, who is often described, mistakenly, as the movement’s leader. Milo casts the alt right as principally a trolling enterprise, dedicated to attacking liberal shibboleths for the “lulz”– there’s precious little actual bigotry. But Eric insists otherwise. Yes, they like to joke, they have memes, they’re just as funny as liberals – have I heard of their satirical news podcasts, the Daily Shoah and Fash the Nation? But make no mistake, the racism is real. Eric especially enjoys The Daily Stormer, a leading alt-right news site, which is unashamedly pro-Hitler.

What unites Johnson and Eric is what they describe as “the systematic browbeating of the white male” – namely all this talk of privilege, the Confederate flag, Black Lives Matter and mansplaining. But beyond that, it’s the “looming extinction of the white race”. This is the language they use. Also: “Diversity equals white genocide.” The alt right loves to evoke genocide while harbouring Holocaust deniers. Their point is that white people are melting away like the icecaps, and they have a primal drive to stop it. In 2044, non-Hispanic whites will drop below 50% of the US population. “The generation of the white minority has already been born,” Eric says. “Look at South Africa and Rhodesia. That’s where we’re headed. Total disenfranchisement.”

It’s definitely worth clicking over and reading the in-depth article at The Guardian. It’s unpleasant, it’s upsetting, and it’s scary. There’s no point ignoring this though, we do that at our peril.

Equal Pay: Denies Women Ability to Negotiate.

Rep. Tom McClintock appears at a debate (YouTube/screen grab)

Rep. Tom McClintock appears at a debate (YouTube/screen grab)

California Republican Rep. Tom McClintock recently cited $1/hour jobs and the “opportunity to negotiate” as reasons that women are better off without the protection of equal pay laws.

At a debate last week between McClintock and Dr. Bob Derlet, a Sonora Democrat, one voter brought up the topic of equal pay for women, and asked the Republican incumbent his daughter should make less than his son.

McClintock recalled that his “biggest break” had been when a local newspaper editor paid him a wage that worked out to about $1 per hour.

Yes, yes, and how many decades ago was that, Rep. Dinosaur? I can think back decades ago to what I was paid when I waited tables, and boy, you just don’t want to know how hard I had to work for next to nothing.  I made a whole $50.00 dollars a week, and was paid every two weeks. That wasn’t right then, and it sure as hell isn’t right now. Back then, the excuse for serving work wages was because tips. I think that one is still being used. And y’know, back then, there were a lot of old white men who thought a dime was a really generous tip. Fuck the good ol’ days. I was there, they weren’t all that. (I was there for one set of them, anyway.)

[…]

McClintock added that he did not want to “deny that opportunity to anyone, regardless of their gender, their age, their experience.”

“I believe that every person ought to have the freedom to negotiate terms that satisfactory to them and to their employer without some third party butting his nose into the transaction,” he opined. “That’s called freedom. It works and it’s time we put it back to work.”

No, that’s not freedom. It’s slavery, and it doesn’t work at all, except for people who already have enough wealth to ease their way through fifty lifetimes rather than one. Jesus Christ, everywhere you turn, there are these old, white men who just cannot cope unless everyone is forced to move backwards, backwards, backwards, undoing the generations of hard work people lived and died for, to make social progress. Please, put your pasty arse out to pasture, Sir, we do not need you.

https://youtu.be/50WktZWVvgo

Full story here.

Defending the Indefensible.

Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. CREDIT: AP Photo/Evan Vucci.

Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. CREDIT: AP Photo/Evan Vucci.

While Trump’s latest vileness has caused some more repubs to jump ship, even some evangelicals, plenty of them are sticking, and attempting to defend the indefensible, Trump talking about women as convenient walking vaginas, there for him to grab and use, because white and wealthy.

One group wrote the comments off as harmless banter.

Former Trump campaign manager and CNN commentator Corey Lewandowski dismissed the tape’s importance because, “We are electing a leader to the free world, we’re not electing a Sunday school teacher.”

On MSNBC, Michele Bachmann, former member of Congress, called Trump’s comments “bad boy talk.”

And the chair of Trump’s Virginia campaign who is also running for governor responded to his candidate’s comments by saying Trump “acted like a frat boy, as a lot of guys do,” adding that people already “knew he wasn’t an angel.”

The co-chair of Trump’s campaign in New York, Carl Paladino, said Trump’s comments were something “ all men do, at least all normal men.”

That’s something all normal men do? That’s news to me. The man I live with doesn’t do that, say that, or think that. I’m pretty sure he’d be considered a normal man. All the men I’m friends with don’t do that, say that, or think that, and yes, normal men. It’s men like Paladino who give all men a bad name, perpetuating the idea that men are barely restrained beasts, who can’t be trusted to be thinking creatures.

Another group came to his defense by saying we’re all sinners.

When asked for former Republican candidate Ben Carson’s reaction, spokesman Armstrong Williams told BuzzFeed, “People commit adultery. It happens. Ministers. Heads of state. Everyday people. People are human, they do human things. It’s nothing unusual that somebody committed adultery on their spouse. Women do it. Men do it. Should we be shocked by it? No… Hey, the flesh can be weak, my man.”

Unsurprisingly, Carson doesn’t even manage to address the remarks and behaviour in question, although one wonders if he’d be so casual about adultery if he was talking about Bill Clinton. Anyroad, the question wasn’t one of adultery, even though Trump has exhibited no particular trait of fidelity. Trump talked about women as walking holes he could grab by the vagina, and use them at his whim. That would be assault and rape, not the same thing as adultery.

Sean Hannity, Fox News host, seemed to echo that defense, saying, “King David Had 500 concubines for crying out loud.”

I have absolutely no idea just what the fuck relevance this is supposed to have, unless one wants to point out that David did get his spouse via murder, and did rape her after god decided to punish David by killing his infant child. All of which is a spectacular derail. What in the hell does that have to do with saying “I can grab any woman by her pussy”?

Washington State Republican Party Chairwoman Susan Hutchison argued that they shouldn’t matter now because they “were made when he was a Democrat.”

Uh, I, no. I can’t even.

And Fox host Bill O’Reilly pointed out that the comments were in a “private conversation.”

Oh FFS, it’s hardly a private conversation if someone is wearing a microphone, you idiot.

Via Think Progress.

Sunday Facepalm.

This took place in September this year. The governor of Oklahoma declared a day to be Oilfield Prayer Day. Yep. Good old Christian Dominionism at work – look at all this nice stuff god blessed us with, now let’s get out there, destroy everything and fuck it all up! There is not enough facepalm.

oil

Whereas, Oklahoma is blessed with an abundance of oil and natural gas, allowing the state to be a prosperous producer of these valuable resources; and

Whereas, Christians acknowledge such natural resources are created by God; and

Whereas, the oil and gas industry continues to produce countless opportunities for wealth generation for Oklahoma families; and

Whereas, Oklahoma recognizes the incredible economic, community and faith-based impacts demonstrated across the state by oil and natural gas companies; and

Whereas, Christians are invited to thank God for the blessings created by the oil and natural gas industry and to seek His Wisdom and ask for protection;

Now, Therefore, I, Mary Fallin, Governor, do hereby proclaim October 13,

Oilfield Prayer Day.

Christians just can’t fuck off enough. Seriously, you have not only ruined and destroyed things forever, but you continue to do so, and in the worst possible way. Apparently, this was the governor’s response to Oklahoma’s failing economy. Wow, what leadership. As Mark Trahant points out, the move, right now, to clean energy can not only bring temporary and permanent jobs, in the thousands, it can massively boost a state economy. How about that, Ms. Fallin, instead the of the standard christian pillage and not give a fuck? How about that, rather than some limp appeal to prayer, which has never worked, and never will. No one is listening, so that means you need to actually do something your self.

And the nerve of setting this 3 days after “Hey, here to fuck you over forever!” Day.

The PDF is here, if you want to see it in all its nauseating glory.

Standing Rock (Inyan Woslata).

Standing Rock Joins the World’s Indigenous Fighting for Land and Life.

 

Frank Cooper and Kaya Littleturtle of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina greet Sami representatives from Norway, Inger Biret, Kvernmo Gaup, and Sara Marielle Gaup Beaska on Friday. Desiree Kane.

Frank Cooper and Kaya Littleturtle of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina greet Sami representatives from Norway, Inger Biret, Kvernmo Gaup, and Sara Marielle Gaup Beaska on Friday. Desiree Kane.

From Paris to Standing Rock It’s the Climate Choices Ahead.

 

President Barack Obama congratulates Senior Advisor Brian Deese on the first day of the implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change, in the Oval Office, Oct. 5, 2016. Deese worked with Secretary of State John Kerry and EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to make the agreement possible. Chief of Staff Denis McDonough watches at left. Pete Souza/White House.

President Barack Obama congratulates Senior Advisor Brian Deese on the first day of the implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change, in the Oval Office, Oct. 5, 2016. Deese worked with Secretary of State John Kerry and EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to make the agreement possible. Chief of Staff Denis McDonough watches at left. Pete Souza/White House.

Militarization and Mistaken Identity: Police Crack Down on DAPL Protectors.

 

An increasingly militarized police presence is cracking down via video and other technology to identify and arrest water protectors at Dakota Access pipeline construction sites—even when they're not present. Mary Annette Pember.

An increasingly militarized police presence is cracking down via video and other technology to identify and arrest water protectors at Dakota Access pipeline construction sites—even when they’re not present. Mary Annette Pember.

Dalrymple has managed to “borrow” up to 6 million dollars from a state owned bank, to feed police to protect people from the scary Indians and allies.  And Kirchmeier is planning to call on cops in Laramie, Wyoming, to come here and “help”.  I’m furious and disgusted.

Tribal Leaders Speak at DC #NoDAPL Rally.

 

All via ICTMN.

Field Day with My Little Assholes.

img_6241-1-600x600

img_6243-1

A white teacher in Maryland faced backlash after she posted photos of Black children used for humor and called them a degrading name.

In images sent to Atlanta Black Star from an anonymous source, Kelly Forostiak uses her students as props on Instagram. Her page – which is no longer available – showed she is a teacher at Deer Park Elementary in Maryland.

According to the source, Forostiak graduated from Urbana High School in Ijamsville, Maryland in 2010. Below, the teacher jokingly calls her fifth-grade students “little a——- that I somehow still love.”

There’s a whole lot more at the article, including many of the various responses from people. For me, this one summed up best:

teacher-response-anger-1

These comments man…Black adults justifying a white woman calling black children assholes…this is why we can’t win. We won’t even defend our children. I don’t know of any other race of people that would stand for their children being called assholes by their teachers on social media! Tf is wrong with us? “Some of them probably as bad as fuck tho” “some kids are assholes”…OKAY AND I WONDER WHERE THEY GOT IT FROM. Kids don’t pick up bad behavior and attitudes from nowhere. Gtfoh…

I’d be willing to bet there isn’t a parent alive, or any adult who works with children who has not had at least one “little asshole” thought moment, or as Stephen King once said, dark fantasies about crucifying their kids to the walls, but you don’t say that stuff out loud to the children. I will not defend any adult who says such utter isht to children, and apparently, everyone thought the costumes and racist captions weren’t even much worth mentioning.

Regardless of the social media divide, The Baltimore Sun reported Forostiak’s expletive caused her to face disciplinary action. Baltimore County schools spokesperson Mychael Dickerson told the newspaper Forostiak regretted posting the image and making the comments. Dickerson declined to detail exactly what punishment the teacher will face. However, he noted Forostiak is currently employed in the school system and accepts her discipline.

I rather expect that means a slap on the wrist, a la “FFS, don’t be a moron on social media!”

Full story at Atlanta Black Star.

The Red Pill.

Courtesy Jaye Bird Productions.

Courtesy Jaye Bird Productions.

The kickstarter funded documentary (I use that word lightly) The Red Pill, all about those poor, downtrodden yet valiant MRA heroes has been reviewed. Note that in the comments, a few MRAs get a bit, um, bonkers over how a film reviewer could have possibly seen the film before it was released, gasp! Unleash the lawyers! It’s a fine demonstration of the distance between these men and reality.

Here’s a great example of how not to open your documentary. “After releasing my film in 2012 about marriage equality, I was at a loss of what topic to explore next,” says Cassie Jaye in the halting tones of a hostage reading her captors’ statement to the world. That comes at the start of her film The Red Pill, and the high drama of her search for a subject gets illustrated with the results of a web search. “I started to research this ‘rape culture,’ ” she tells us, each syllable so far from the next one that a tumbleweed could breeze through the gap.

We literally see the words rape culture get typed into Google. “A website called A Voice for Men popped up,” she tells us. And then, for two agonizing hours, Jaye tumbles slowly down America’s stupidest rabbit hole, discovering that Men’s Rights Activists are actually just dudes who have been dicked over by a culture that punishes masculinity.

[…]

Here’s something Elam wrote on A Voice for Men in 2010: “Should I be called to sit on a jury for a rape trial, I vow publicly to vote not guilty, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that the charges are true.” What excuse would any serious documentarian have for not asking Elam to explain that?

You don’t even have to put in that tiny bit of online legwork to suspect that something’s hinky with Jaye’s film. (It’s a Kickstarter job, and A Voice for Men and Reddit’s most misogynistic MRA subs were active in the campaigns.) Jaye acknowledges in the opening and closing minutes that MRAs sometimes spew nasty garbage online, but she never presses them on this in her many interviews. Instead, she lets them moan about how hard it is to be a dude in 2016, endorsing their anecdotal complaints about unfair family courts, incidents of men being tricked into being fathers, and — I didn’t quite follow this one — one father’s conviction that the women who had custody of his son were systematically trying to make the boy fat. That story drags on forever, and Jaye cuts from it to footage of herself tooling around in her car, driving past a Supercuts.

Like many amateurish Kickstarter docs, The Red Pill doesn’t always have visuals worth regarding on a screen, but I do cherish one flourish: an animated sequence of falling snowflakes, each with a different MRA complaint printed on it, meant to illustrate the movement’s diversity of grievances. There’s “Misandry”! There’s “Restraining Orders”! Even the metaphor is hilariously white.

[…]

What the film and the movement fail to demonstrate is any kind of systemic cause. Instead, the author of men’s troubles here is always that vague bugaboo feminism, which we’re told is designed to silence its opponents. (Is it even worth pointing out that being criticized for what you say is not the same as being denied your right to say it?) Jaye renounces her own feminist past toward the end of the film, the announcement delivered over video of her typing, then looking at a computer, then driving around some more.

[…]

“Why can’t men talk about their problems?” Elam asks Jaye’s camera in earnest, apparently unaware that he gets shouted at and pilloried not for identifying “problems” but for being a dick. Hey, Elam — men can talk about our problems. You’re one of them.

Alan Scherstuhl’s full review is at The Village Voice. I fully appreciate Mr. Scherstuhl’s willingness to watch this documentary, as it’s not something I could bring myself to watch, even it were free and I was promised the proverbial month of Sundays.

UND: Racism Doesn’t Violate Code of Conduct.

More University of North Dakota students wear blackface (Photo: Facebook).

More University of North Dakota students wear blackface (Photo: Facebook).

Remember the “Locked the Black Bitch Out” students, and the Blackface students? It has been decided by UND that neither of these acts of explicit racism violate the UND code of student life because…constitution. Yep. It’s that pesky 1st amendment preventing the university administrators from doing a gosh darn thing about the casual and uncaring racism demonstrated by students. They can’t do anything at all, oh no, their hands are tied.

The two racially charged photos went viral and led to black student leaders at UND holding a rally Friday to share their experiences with racism and ask for the university to adopt a zero-tolerance policy when matters, such as the two photos, come up. After the rally, some of the organizers met with UND President Mark Kennedy to talk about their concerns about the campus environment.

In a letter to the campus community Wednesday, Kennedy condemned the two photos, but said a zero-tolerance policy is not possible for UND’s campus.

“While I appreciate the desire for such a policy, it is unachievable under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,” Kennedy wrote. “The challenge we all face is to find the balance between wanting to eliminate expressions of racism and bigotry and supporting the free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment. If we value freedom of speech, we must acknowledge that some may find the expressions of others unwelcome, painful, or even, offensive. We can, however, speak out and condemn such expressions, and we can work to create a more welcoming and inclusive environment.”

A more welcoming and inclusive environment? Just how are you going to do that when you’ve effectively given students a green light to be bigoted assholes? How on earth could any student of colour feel comfortable or even begin to trust people in that environment? You’re making a lot of soothing noises, but actions speak louder, and your actions? You didn’t take any. Instead, you chose the craven route of hiding behind the 1st amendment, and while doing that, you demonstrated a complete lack of understanding that amendment. All speech is not protected, Mr. Kennedy, and a good deal of speech is not considered to be something which can be freely spouted. We’re also not talking about just speech here, Mr. Kennedy. This is a shameful display of cowardice, and blatant pandering to white privilege.

Kennedy announced last week that the school will form a diversity advisory council to provide recommendations for improving the campus climate on issues of diversity and inclusion.

The president tapped Associate Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion Sandra Mitchell to lead the process of selecting no more than 12 individuals to serve on the council.

The council will review the university’s existing diversity and inclusion practices and programs and identify the best practices to enhance the university’s understanding of diversity and inclusion in the higher education setting, Kennedy wrote.

“I want to make sure we have courses that challenge students to consider alternative perspectives and which will help students better understand how effectively engaging those with diverse backgrounds is essential for their future success,” Kennedy wrote.

Ah. So basically, Mr. Kennedy, what you want is to teach your white bigots the when and where it’s okay to let your bigotry ring, lest they impede those shiny futures. *Spits*

Via Grand Forks Herald.

“A gun’s never hurt anyone, never.”

Dede King (KFDX).

Dede King (KFDX).

What Wichita Falls Gun and Knife Show organizers are calling a careless mistake, left three in the hospital.

The accidental discharge of a 12 gauge shotgun loaded with bird shot happened just before 9 a.m. Saturday, minutes before the show at the MPEC was set to open.

Police say it was a vendor, who show organizers say was a veteran at the gun shows and a Wichita Falls local.

The bird shot struck the hands, arms and neck areas of three MPEC employees working in the concessions area.

“This is the first I’ve head of it,” said Officer Timothy Johnson with Wichita Falls Police Department. “The first I’ve seen something like this happen at a gun show.”

The Gun and Knife Show has been in Wichita Falls for 36 years. Gun Show Publicity Chair, Joe Tom White, tells us the show had been at the MPEC for 16 years and he’s never seen an accidental discharge.

“Guns don’t accidently discharge, people accidently pull the trigger,” said White. “A gun’s never hurt anyone, never. People with a gun have. I guess if you had a loaded gun and threw it down, it might go off or something, that might be possible. It’s carelessness, and I can’t judge because this man is going to be judged. I would judge it was carelessness on his part to bring a loaded gun in here when it’s not allowed.”

White said for years they have taken pride in that. He just hopes this doesn’t put a stop to the Gun and Knife shows all together, especially because he said this not only brings education to gun owners and potential buyers, but also because it has a great economic impact.

“I would hate it,” White said. “We’ve been doing it 36 years in Wichita Falls. Tremendous impact on the econonics in this city. The Chamber of Commerce will tell you. All the sales tax, it’s guys from all over the United States, the sales tax stays here five times a year.”

Goodness, all that talk, and not one word about the three people who were shot. I guess they don’t matter as much as sales tax. At least one of the people shot isn’t overly impressed:

Police said three employees suffered non-life-threatening injuries and the gun show reopened Sunday morning as usual — but one of the victims said her life will never be the same.

“My whole life at this moment, has been taken away from me,” said Dede King, who has worked the show for 14 years. “My health will never be the same.”

King said she saw her co-worker lying on the ground, bleeding badly, after hearing a gunshot.

“I couldn’t tell if he was dead or alive,” King said. “All of a sudden I couldn’t get to him. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move — and I realize I had been shot. I heard someone say she’s bleeding from the neck.”

King and her family are unhappy with the gun show’s organizers, who said all the victims were fine — although she was fighting for her life and is unable to return to her full-time job at the Allred Prison Medical Department.

The show’s organizers haven’t even called to check up on her, relatives said.

How very unsurprising. Those gun shows, so gosh darn safe, you betcha:

Two men were injured Saturday in an accidental shooting at another gun show in Florida, and two teenagers were wounded the week before at a gun show in Utah.

Via Texomas and Raw Story.

Lawyer Kills Wife, Blames Black Lives Matter.

Atlanta — Attorney Tex McIver, shown in this 2010 photo.

Atlanta — Attorney Tex McIver, shown in this 2010 photo.

A wealthy, white attorney in Georgia has shot his wife to death, and conveniently blames a fear of Black Lives Matter for the ‘incident’. This story has more holes than ragged lace, and it looks like cops are going right along with it, leaving pertinent information out of their report, and not bothering to ask pesky questions, like “why did you go to a hospital that was further away, when there was one right there?” There’s also the question of falling asleep, right after claiming to be in fear of his life. Really? I’ve been deeply scared before, it’s never induced me to take a nap.

According to reports by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Tex McIver killed his wife, Diane McIver, while they were returning to Atlanta after a weekend getaway.

McIver, a high-profile lawyer in Atlanta, told his wife to sit in the front passenger’s seat and he sat in the back seat while a chauffeur drove them home. At some point during the trip, the driver exited the highway to avoid traffic near downtown Atlanta. McIver told police that he heard about Black Lives Matter protests in Buckhead and after several individuals approached the vehicle near Peachtree and Pine streets (where a homeless shelter is located), he feared that he would be carjacked. As a result of being afraid, he told his wife to hand him a gun that was in the glove department and wrapped in a plastic grocery bag. At some point, McIver said he fell asleep near Piedmont Park, which is less than five minutes from where he first became frightened, and shot his wife in the back after the driver hit a bump in the road. She eventually died from the gunshot wound. After being questioned by Atlanta police, McIver was allowed to leave without being arrested.

However, there are several inconsistencies in McIver’s story. The Black Lives Matter rally that he referred to took place five days earlier near Lenox Mall, about 10 miles away from where he claimed he feared that a Black protester would carjack him. Moreover, there has never been an incident in Atlanta where a Black Lives Matter protester carjacked or committed armed robbery during a protest. Also, the driver took Diane to a hospital on Clifton Road, which is four miles away from where she was shot. Emory Midtown Hospital was less than two miles away.

Also, the Atlanta Police Department have been less than transparent. The officer who responded to the shooting did not list the driver in the police report or include any of his or her statements. The APD has said very little about the shooting or investigation since releasing a report two days after the shooting occurred.

Golly, nothing wrong about that story, oh no. FFS, it could hardly be more apparent that the cops are not going to even pretend to do their supposed job here. So nice to be white and wealthy, yeah?

Via Rollingout. The Daily Kos also has a look at this tall tale, and takes a good look at all those gaping holes the cops don’t seem to care about.