2008
Yearly Archives: 2008
What the same-gender-loving African American can learn from the Prop 8 issue
Being homosexual compromises or revokes the entitlement that most white gays and lesbians are born and raised into. Many feel they must make a choice between their full entitlement - by abstaining or by remaining in the closet - and expressing their sexuality.
Polluter pays!
Lennar's LEN stocks had sunk to $3.60 per share by mid-November despite restructuring and partnership with the financial firm CB Richard Ellis, headed by Richard Blum, a UC regent and husband of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a principle sponsor of the Lennar-funded Proposition G.
King-Garvey shareholders protest land grab by bailed out bank
A Yes We Can Coalition of Asian and Black King-Garvey shareholders chanting, "Stop the land grab; yes, we can!" marched outside Citibank subsidiary Citi Community Capital in the heart of San Francisco's Financial District on Thursday, Nov. 13.
Cynthia McKinney stopped from leaving U.S. to speak in Syria
Today I was slated to speak in Damascus, Syria, at a conference to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 60th year that the Palestinian people have been denied their Right of Return enshrined in that declaration. But I was not allowed to exit the country.
‘This is criminal’
This story, dictated by Malik Rahim to the Bay View two days after Katrina, was the call heard round the world that Black and poor New Orleanians were being abandoned in nothing less than attempted genocide and volunteers were needed. Now Malik is in a winnable race for Congress Dec. 6. Go Malik!
Malik Rahim for Congress Dec. 6!
Malik Rahim has spoken out with courage, asked the difficult questions and built viable community alternatives. He is a strong organizer who acted while the politicians waited. Now he wants to take his courage to Congress.
Mining for bling
Vanguard journalist and Current TV producer Christof Putzel traces gold to its origins in one of Africa's biggest gold mines in the Democratic Republic...
Wanda’s Picks for Nov. 21
Dropped in to see the McCoy Tyner Trio with Marc Ribot on guitar. Tyner is always a treat and this ensemble featuring Gerald Cannon on bass and Eric Kamau Gravett on drums is phenomenal!
Pimping Blackness in the fight against Prop 8
After Proposition 8 passed, Black gay men holding "No on Proposition 8" signs were verbally assaulted by white gay anti-Prop 8 protesters. They were called "niggers," and "their people" were blamed for its passage.
From the Bottom of the Heap: The Autobiography of Black Panther Robert Hillary King
Robert King takes us on a lyrical journey "From the Bottom of the Heap" to the depths of a darkness so dense flashlights can't pierce the intangible conscience or sensibility of a nation or a people who would subject another citizen to what King describes in his autobiography as a normal state of affairs for Black men.
The Black/Afrikan community and the death penalty
"Slavery became a haven for the death penalty. In Virginia, before the end of slavery, there was only one crime for which a white person could be executed. But there were 66 crimes for which a slave could be executed.” – Sis. Angela Davis, 2003
Big victory for California Hotel tenants
“The tenants prevailed. There was no one from Oakland Community Housing appearing in court today to oppose the tenants’ needs or Judge Richard Keller’s ruling. This is a big victory for the people.”
Confirmations of the conscious: Lynne Johnson and Palo Alto’s war against Black folk
With the landslide victory of Barack Obama, there are segments of our society who feel racism is a thing of the past. Thankfully, we have tyrants in positions of power like Palo Alto Police Chief Lynne Johnson to keep everything in proper perspective.
Nadra Foster and the resignation of KPFA Business Manager Lois Withers
On Nov. 10, KPFA General Manager Lemlem Rijio announced through email that Lois Withers, KPFA's business manager, was resigning. Lois is the white woman who called the police on Black programmer Nadra Foster, falsely accusing her of being banned, on Aug. 20.
Skin folk and kin folk
By now, I am sure that you are aware of the fallout over the Nov. 4 election results that passed Proposition 8, an amendment to the state constitution to make marriage legal only between one man and one woman. No doubt many of you reading this op-ed were a part of the 69 percent of Blacks who supported the measure.
Wanda’s Picks for Nov. 14
As President Nelson Mandela said of Mama Africa, Miriam Makeba, this week: "Her haunting melodies gave voice to the pain of exile and dislocation, which she felt for 31 long years. At the same time, her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us."
U.S. and Rwanda to blame for Congo’s human catastrophe
I know no honest, informed Congo watchers who doubt that Gen. Laurent Nkunda and his ruthless militia are tools of the U.S. and its African proxy, Rwanda, in the imperial resource war now raging in Eastern Congo.
Haitian families furious over school collapse
"No one cares about the children, living or dead," one furious father of children in the collapsed school outside of Port au Prince, Haiti, swore Sunday. "Government officials and people from all the NGOs, they all come, take pictures, make speeches and they leave us with nothing. We need action!"
The meanings of victory
by Mumia Abu-Jamal: The count has been called and Barack Hussein Obama Jr. has become the 44th president of the United States of America. But, in truth, history will record him as No. 1: the first African-American president.
Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney: End the conflict in the Congo
What makes this conflict particularly sickening is the role of U.S. and European corporations, together with Rwanda and Uganda, in the plunder of DRC's resources. This is a war about self-interest and greed.