‘This is a Nightmare and I Have Not Woken Up’

(L-R) Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin; Samaira Rice, the mother of Tamir Rice; and Lesley McSpadden, the mother of Michael Brown Jr; join the ‘Justice For All’ march and rally in the nation’s capital on December 13, 2014.

 

by Akiba Solomon

 

More than six months after a troubled rookie officer, Timothy Loehmann, fatally shot 12-year-old Tamir Rice in a Clevland park, the Cuyahoga sherriff’s department has finally completed its investigation and handed its results to Cleveland-area prosecutor Timothy McGinty. There is no official word on what they’ve uncovered about November 22, 2014 when police found Rice playing with a pellet gun by himself at Cudell Recreation Center park and shot him wthin two seconds of their arrival. (One local news outlet has reported that the department found no evidence to support criminal charges against Loehmann; a call to the department was not returned in time for publication.)

What we do know, all too well, is that the name “Tamir Rice” sits on a long, horrifying list of young people of color killed by police and extrajudicial violence. Tamir is now among the Trayvons and the Rekias, the Jessies and the Michaels. It’s a devastating distinction.

I talked to Tamir’s mom, Samaria Rice, in late May as she was planning a community celebration for her youngest son’s birthday. She opened up about who Tamir was, what she thinks of protests in his name, and what she and her other children—Tajai, Kavon and Tasheona—are doing to heal from this unimaginable loss.

 

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Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.colorlines.com

#StandWithNanHui: For Immigration and Gender Justice


BY SALLY J. KIM

Korean immigrant mother Jo, subjected to abuse by her daughter’s father and former partner, Jesse Charlton, found herself entangled in criminal, family law, and immigration systems.

Source: aapivoices.com

Tweets you must see 1.4

New statistics: Pregnancy discrimination claims hit low-wage workers hardest

New data from the EEOC show that pregnancy discrimination hits virtually every industry and every geographic area of the country.

Source: www.washingtonpost.com

NYC gives green light to the building of apartments with ‘poor door’

 

‘No one ever said that the goal was full integration of these populations,’ David Von Spreckelsen…’

 

– Click through to read more –

 

Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

 

The persistence of segregation.

 

Racial Inequality Is Getting Complicated. Eric Holder Explains How.

 

“This weekend, on the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board, Attorney General Eric Holder delivered an important speech on race and inequality. He emphasized the persistence and power of social stratification, compared with the superficiality of racist remarks by Cliven Bundyand Donald Sterling. Holder called for an “honest, tough, and vigorous debate,” setting aside simplistic answers and instead speaking “forthrightly about these difficult issues.””

 
See on www.slate.com

Race Basics: The Trouble With White People

 

The whole article is worth reading, but if you don’t have time, here are some highlights:

 

“In this struggle we can’t give up on white people. I know this will disappoint some more militant (or maybe just sick and tired) readers, but unless we can move more whites onto our side, we will never end racism.

But, whites’ relative proximity to power doesn’t make them evil, just more influential.

The white middle class in the U.S. rose from the rubble of the Great Depression as a result of an economic stimulus package of programs and policies that was won by the Roosevelt administration. But winning that package of programs required cutting a deal with racially conservative Southern legislators that made Roosevelt’s stimulus racially exclusive.

Those government programs that created the white middle class were paid for by every worker, including workers of color.

Race is a cage that keeps all but the most powerful among us trapped in perpetual insecurity, fighting against one another for privileges rather than with one another for power. But the bars of that cage are tempered not just by privilege but by fear.

We need to approach the project of winning racial justice as a struggle against fear.

In order to win against racism, we need more than criticism of those who appear to be hoarding the goods. We need solutions that make room in our still far from complete democracy for all of us so that none of us need fear exclusion, exploitation, and the humiliation of being denied basic human dignity. And isn’t that what justice is all about anyway?”

 
See on www.racefiles.com

How U.S. is lagging on quality of life

Fareed speaks with Michael Porter, a professor at the Harvard Business School, about a groundbreaking new Social Progress Index – and how the United States is lagging on many indicators. Watch the video for the full interview or on GPS this Sunday at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET on CNN.

 

Community Village‘s insight:

 

U.S. is number 70 in Health and Wellness

 

When a country has the money and then refuses to spend it on the basic health and wellness of it’s citizens, that is criminal and oppressive.

See on globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com

Princeton Scientific Study: America is No Longer a Democracy; It’s Now an Oligarchy

 

“A scientific study done at Princeton University indicates that the United States is no longer a Democracy. The country has now morphed into an Oligarchy.”

 

 

Community Village‘s insight:

 

Has the U.S. every been ruled by ‘the people’?

 

The U.S. has never been a democracy. The U.S. is a republic with democratic ideals.

 

Dr. Cornel West has been saying that the U.S. is a plutocracy and an oligarchy ever since I started listening to him on Smiley & West.

 

See on thoughtprovokingperspectives.wordpress.com