Highbrow Magazine - race https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/race en PBS’ ‘American Reckoning’ Focuses on the Necessary Quest for Civil Rights Justice https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/19320-pbs-american-reckoning-focuses-necessary-quest-civil-rights-justice <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/film-tv" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Film &amp; TV</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 02/14/2022 - 16:34</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1americanreckoning.jpg?itok=0c9M-UV-"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1americanreckoning.jpg?itok=0c9M-UV-" width="480" height="270" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">A car bomb attached to his left-turn signal killed Wharlest Jackson Sr., on February 27, 1967, in Natchez, Mississippi. Despite evidence pointing to the inner circle of the KKK, no one was ever charged in the death of the civil rights activist and father of five.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The new feature-length documentary, <em>American Reckoning</em>, from Frontline and Retro Report, with support from Chasing the Dream, follows Jackson’s cold case, including the events leading up to the murder and the ensuing investigation.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Jackson’s murder is part of a “much larger narrative about how the U.S. has failed to deliver justice to the Black families of the men and women who were victims of racial violence during the civil rights struggle,” says the documentary’s co-director, co-producer, and journalist Yoruba Richen in a <a href="https://www.kpbs.org/news/2022/02/09/frontline-american-reckoning" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">PBS interview</a>.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2americanreckoning.jpg" style="height:317px; width:603px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">His story comes to life with rare archival footage shot in Natchez more than 50 years ago—some never shown before—and made available through the Amistad Research Center, alongside interviews of people who were there and whose lives were forever changed—including three of Jackson’s kids and two kids of KKK members—along with FBI agents and journalists. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Pacing through the unresolved murder and the lack of answers provided by the police and FBI, we’re feeling the hopelessness, when the story fast-forwards 40 years, to 2007. The eminent John Lewis emerges on the scene, introducing the Emmitt Till Unsolved Civil Rights Act to Congress. And then he pays a visit to the Jackson family, promising them hope—though even he can provide only so much.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">“America’s going to have to answer for the injustices that they have caused our people for many years,” says Debra Jackson, one of Jackson’s daughters.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Interwoven with Jackson’s murder, we watch the rise of a local chapter in the ‘60s of the little-known Deacons for Defense and Justice, an armed resistance group headed by charismatic local barber James Jackson. They protected Natchez’s Black community from armed KKK violence, and they enforced a boycott of White businesses that forced the White power structure to give in.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3americanreckoning.jpg" style="height:400px; width:600px" typeof="foaf:Image" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">“The intention was to create [in the retelling of American history] this narrative of peaceful resistance, that people died for a reason,” says Richen in a <a href="https://listen.sdpb.org/show/in-the-moment/2022-02-10/american-reckoning-and-tribal-legislation-in-pierre" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">PBS interview</a>. “That’s not the reality that we’re living with. The denial we’ve had in this country for a long time is apparent. It’s people denying the impact of slavery and of Jim Crow and of systematic racism and of education, saying it doesn’t exist. The facts speak for themselves.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">“The history of Black resistance has been erased in Natchez and in all of America,” Wharlest Jackson Jr., says. “They don’t want to have anything that might make White people feel uncomfortable. The Natchez boycott doesn’t fit that narrative. The Deacons don’t fit that narrative.”</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>American Reckoning</em>, part of Frontline’s multiplatform initiative <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/announcement/frontline-announces-unresolved-unprecedented-multi-platform-investigation-civil-rights-era-cold-case-murders-till-act/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Un(re)solved</a> to tell the stories of more than unsolved 150 victims of civil rights era murders, zeros in on the unfinished quest for justice, and it is a must-see for anyone living in modern-day America.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>The documentary premieres on PBS on February 15, 2022 at 10/9c.</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Author Bio:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em><strong>Barbara Noe Kennedy worked as an editor at the National Geographic Book Division for more than 20 years. She has written four books, and her writings have also been published in </strong></em><strong>National Geographic, The Daily Telegraph</strong><em><strong>, and the </strong></em><strong>Los Angeles Times</strong><em><strong>, among other publications. She is a contributing writer at </strong></em><strong>Highbrow Magazine. </strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/wharlest-jackson" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">wharlest jackson</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/american-reckoning" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">american reckoning</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/frontline" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">frontline</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/pbs" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">PBS</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/kkk" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">KKK</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/civil-rights" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">civil rights</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/civil-rights-justice" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">civil rights justice</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/race" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">race</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/mississippi" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Mississippi</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/1960s" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">1960s</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/documentaries" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">documentaries</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/racism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">racism</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Barbara Noe Kennedy</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Courtesy of PBS</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Slider</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-videos field-type-video-embed-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <div class="embedded-video"> <div class="player"> <iframe class="" width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/iceyBQA4rQE?width%3D640%26amp%3Bheight%3D360%26amp%3Bautoplay%3D0%26amp%3Bvq%3Dlarge%26amp%3Brel%3D0%26amp%3Bcontrols%3D1%26amp%3Bautohide%3D2%26amp%3Bshowinfo%3D1%26amp%3Bmodestbranding%3D0%26amp%3Btheme%3Ddark%26amp%3Biv_load_policy%3D1%26amp%3Bwmode%3Dopaque" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> </div> </div> </div></div></div> Mon, 14 Feb 2022 21:34:20 +0000 tara 10932 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/19320-pbs-american-reckoning-focuses-necessary-quest-civil-rights-justice#comments Trump Is No Stranger to Law-and-Order Baiting https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5919-trump-no-stranger-law-and-order-baiting <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sun, 07/24/2016 - 14:22</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/6trump.jpg?itok=nollMwku"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/6trump.jpg?itok=nollMwku" width="480" height="312" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2016/07/trump-is-no-stranger-to-law-and-order-baiting.php">New America Media</a></strong>:</p> <p> </p> <p>When GOP presidential contender Donald Trump shouts that he’s the “law-and-order candidate,” he is pilfering the line that George Wallace, Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton worked to death during their White House bids. The law-and-order line is heavy with racially coded images of rampant black crime, and this is a surefire way to pander to fearful suburban whites.</p> <p> </p> <p>But Trump actually has his own history, apart from presidential racial-scare politics, of being a self-styled tough-guy on crime.</p> <p> </p> <p>The starting point was the now infamous Central Park Five case of 1989. The five were young African-American and Latino youths charged with the rape and beating of a white female jogger in New York’s Central Park. They were convicted and imprisoned for more than a decade. The five were innocent. Their confessions were obtained illegally, through two days of nonstop police intimidation, coercion and lies. There was no physical evidence to connect them to the crime. The actual assailant eventually confessed and the city settled a multimillion-dollar wrongful imprisonment lawsuit with the five.</p> <p> </p> <p>Trump sniffed an opportunity with the case. With much fanfare when the case hit the news, he shelled out $85,000 to four newspapers to splash an ad demanding the death penalty for the five. Trump made clear that he was not just outraged over the brutal rape and assault but that the case typified a city under siege from lawlessness and that it was time to crack down. The heavy-handed welding of the death penalty was the only way to send the get-tough message to criminals. He minced no words in his ad: “I want to hate these muggers and murderers.”</p> <p> </p> <p>The ad was a not-so-subtle effort to prod state legislators to override then-New York Governor Mario Cuomo’s annual veto of a proposed law to reinstate the death penalty in the state. Trump did not budge one inch from his tough-guy stance on crime, even after the admission that the Central Park Five were innocent. There were no apologies, no recriminations, no second guesses from him about the horror that if New York had had the death penalty at the time and the five men had been executed at his prodding, he would have had the blood of innocent men on his hands.</p> <p> </p> <p>Instead, he doubled down and lambasted the city’s payout to the men as a disgrace and politics at its lowest form. The bald implication was that the men were still guilty and got a reward for their crime.</p> <p> </p> <p>Trump returned to tout the death penalty again last December when he screamed to a meeting of the New England Police Benevolent Association that one of the first things that he’d do if elected would be to sign an executive order urging judges and juries to automatically slap the death penalty on anyone who kills a cop. It was pure hyperbole since only states can apply the death penalty for the murder of local police and the federal government has jurisdiction over the death penalty in a limited number of proscribed federal cases.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/7trump.jpg" style="height:351px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>But Trump wasn’t finished. He solemnly pledged that he’d never let police officers down and that he’d do everything he could to get the police even more military-style equipment and vehicles. This was an obvious slap at the increasing call by many civil rights and civil liberties advocates and even a promise by President Obama to review the heavy-duty surplus military armor and weapons that police departments have gotten free or at bargain prices from the Defense Department.</p> <p> </p> <p>Trump masterfully played to the law-and-order crowd with the death penalty and further militarization of police departments to make the political point that he was the candidate who’d crack down on crime and violence. He got the full-throated backing of the New England police group.</p> <p> </p> <p>The San Bernardino massacre and the murder of police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge are simply the horrid backdrop to the line that Trump has honed over time about America being supposedly under siege from lawlessness in the streets and the need to do whatever it takes to stop it.</p> <p> </p> <p>Trump didn’t need Wallace or Nixon to know that the law-and-order pitch can potentially pay rich political dividends. He first touched a nerve with it in New York decades ago and he’ll play on it again and again in the fall, painting a picture of streets in anarchy, and tarring Clinton and the Democrats as softies on crime. He’s no stranger to that scare tactic.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is the author of Let’s Stop Denying Made in America Terrorism (Amazon Kindle). He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on Radio One. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles and the Pacifica Network.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2016/07/trump-is-no-stranger-to-law-and-order-baiting.php">New America Media</a></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/trump-1" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">trump</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/donald-trump" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Donald Trump</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/race" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">race</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/police-brutality" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">police brutality</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/crime" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">crime</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/violence" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">violence</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/discrimination" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">discrimination</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/african-americans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">African Americans</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/central-park-five" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">central park five</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Earl Ofari Hutchinson </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media; Wikipedia Commons</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sun, 24 Jul 2016 18:22:52 +0000 tara 7064 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5919-trump-no-stranger-law-and-order-baiting#comments What Trump's Disturbing Race-Baiting Means for His Campaign https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5465-what-trumps-disturbing-race-baiting-means-his-campaign <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 11/30/2015 - 20:55</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1trump_2.jpg?itok=UMDqIsTT"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1trump_2.jpg?itok=UMDqIsTT" width="480" height="270" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>First, frontrunning GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump cheers on a crowd at a campaign rally in Birmingham, Alabama that physically and verbally assaults a black protestor. He then follows that up with a tweet on phony and doctored black crime figures that were so racist that even some staunch conservatives cringed at the ploy. They didn’t buy his lame, partial walk back excuse that he was simply retweeting what a supporter sent him.</p> <p> </p> <p>Trump is oblivious to this for a good reason. His unapologetic race baiting is a big part of what rocket-launched him to the front of the GOP presidential pack and at a couple of points when he slid a bit, launched him right back to the front. The race-baiting is hardly new. The instant a multimillion-dollar settlement was announced in 2014 with the five young African-American and Latino youths falsely convicted and imprisoned for assault and rape of a jogger in New York's Central Park in 1989, Trump loudly ranted against the settlement and did everything possible to whip up another round of racial hysteria over the case. And why not? When the case broke in 1989 he shelled out $85,000 to four newspapers to splash an ad demanding the death penalty for the five. The toss of the case and the overwhelming evidence that the men were innocent meant nothing to Trump.</p> <p> </p> <p>The record of Trump’s line of naked bigotry since then has been unbroken. He was ripped by the Justice Department for blatant racial discrimination in his apartment rentals and when cornered on his racist exclusion he blithely said that if he didn't his and other tenants (meaning white tenants) would flee from his units and the city.</p> <p> </p> <p>He turned the thinly disguised racist savaging of President Obama into a fine art by stoking hard the phony, fraudulent, and bigoted Birther movement. Then he doubled down on that by demanding that Obama produce his supposed doctored college transcripts. Ever on the alert for an angle to race bait or to apologize for racism, he piled on the bandwagon to defend former Los Angeles Clipper owner Donald Sterling who was caught on tape making racist rants.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2trump_0.jpg" style="height:425px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Even before Trump tossed his hat in the presidential rink, his well-timed racist digs, quips and slurs were carefully and calculatedly designed to get the tongues wagging, another round of invitations on the talk show circuit, and in the case of the Central Park Five, an invite to pen his race-tinged scribblings in an op-ed column. His cynical but well-calculated race baiting ploy worked to masterful perfection with the Birther issue. Trump knew that while the issue had been thoroughly discredited and disavowed by every leading GOP presidential candidate in 2012, a significant number, if not a majority of Republicans actually believed or wanted to believe that Obama's birth was a legitimate issue to dump back on the political table. The resulting avalanche of lawsuits and petitions filed in various state courts that contested Obama's U.S. citizenship showed there was some mileage to be gained for Trump to continue to wave the issue around. The payoff was that he conned enough newsrooms, talk show hosts and legions of the GOP's inveterate Obama bashers to chat up a Trump presidential candidacy.</p> <p> </p> <p>Trump got what he wanted. Tons of fresh media attention, a momentary seat at the GOP presidential candidate's chat table, and starry-eyed idolization from legions of ultra-conservatives and untold numbers of unreconstructed bigots.</p> <p> </p> <p>The only real difference in what Trump has done with naked race baiting and what legions of other GOP presidential candidates and presidents from Nixon to George W. Bush, and GOP state and local candidates and elected officials have done with race is that his is blatant and in-your-face. The others were subtle, sneaky and loaded with emotional hot button code words and phrases that were designed to stoke the racial fires to win and maintain office. They knew that no overt mention of race was necessary to tug at the emotional strings of the GOP’s core constituency—white conservative, rural, and blue-collar workers. A wink and a nod with the code words on welfare cheats, entitlements, tax and spend big government, and immigrants, and the endless wedge issues from gay marriage to abortion was more than enough to boost their poll ratings.</p> <p> </p> <p>But this is a different time. Polls show millions of whites are wracked with worry, concern, are edgy, and fearful about the future and the direction of the country, and the horrid thought of losing grip on their numbers and power. The usual stock code words and phrases that GOP establishment politicians worked so well in the past can’t compete with a good old-fashioned appeal to black crime, Muslim bashing, and “send them all packing back across the border “shouts. Trump has proven that he’s the right man to say just that and reap a big reward for it.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His latest book is Torpedoing Hillary: The GOP’s Plan to Stop a Clinton White House (Amazon Kindle). He is a frequent MSNBC contributor. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on Radio One. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles and the Pacifica Network.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From our content partner New America Media</strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/donald-trump" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Donald Trump</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/trump-1" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">trump</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/presidential-campaign" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">presidential campaign</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/gop" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">GOP</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/2016-elections" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">2016 elections</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/race" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">race</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/racial-issues" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">racial issues</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Earl Ofari Hutchinson </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Google Images</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Tue, 01 Dec 2015 01:55:20 +0000 tara 6494 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5465-what-trumps-disturbing-race-baiting-means-his-campaign#comments Obama on Ferguson Grand Jury: Anger ‘Is an Understandable Reaction’ https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4467-obama-ferguson-grand-jury-anger-understandable-reaction <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Tue, 11/25/2014 - 10:58</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumobamacolorlines_2.jpg?itok=xDrfZKoB"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumobamacolorlines_2.jpg?itok=xDrfZKoB" width="480" height="300" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From <a href="http://colorlines.com/archives/2014/11/obama_on_ferguson_grand_jury_anger_is_an_understandable_reaction.html">Colorlines</a> and republished by our content partner New America Media</strong>:</p> <p> </p> <p>President Obama, who addressed the nation Monday evening shortly after a grand jury announced that it declined to indict Darren Wilson for killing Michael Brown, said that while, “the decision was the grand jury’s to make,” disappointment and anger about the announcement “is an understandable reaction.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Obama echoed the calls of Michael Brown’s family who in recent days have called for peaceful protests following the grand jury’s decision. “Michael Brown’s parents have lost more than anyone. We should be honoring their wishes,” Obama said, also adding an appeal to police officers in Ferguson, “to show care and restrained in managing” protests.</p> <p> </p> <p>But Obama also commented on the popular frustration with law enforcement officers and their policing of black and Latino communities. “We need to recognize the situation in Ferguson speaks to broader challenges we still face as a nation. The fact is in too many parts of this country distrust exists between law enforcement and communities of color.”</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/1michaelbrown.jpg" style="height:351px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>“Some of this is the result of the legacy of racial discrimination in this country,” Obama said. “This is tragic because nobody needs good policing more than poor communities with high crime rates.”</p> <p> </p> <p>“There are still problems and communities of color aren’t just making these problems up,” Obama said, adding that there are still too many cases in which “the law too often feels as if it is being applied in a discriminatory fashion.”</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From <a href="http://colorlines.com/archives/2014/11/obama_on_ferguson_grand_jury_anger_is_an_understandable_reaction.html">Colorlines</a> and republished by our content partner New America Media</strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ferguson" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">ferguson</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/grand-jury" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">grand jury</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/michael-brown" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">michael brown</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/race" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">race</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/discrimination" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">discrimination</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/racists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">racists</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/darren-wilson" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">darren wilson</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/obama" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Obama</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Colorlines</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Colorlines</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Tue, 25 Nov 2014 15:58:25 +0000 tara 5467 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4467-obama-ferguson-grand-jury-anger-understandable-reaction#comments Does the White Male Need a Movement? https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4077-does-white-male-need-movement <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Thu, 06/19/2014 - 10:25</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1whitemen%20%28Google%29.jpg?itok=Pp7FzTmn"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1whitemen%20%28Google%29.jpg?itok=Pp7FzTmn" width="480" height="265" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>Fearing repercussions from public assembly, through fringe forums and crudely constructed websites, white male nationalists organized the first of a series of “White Man Marches” on March 15 of this year in major cities across the country. Called “of course” a success by organizer Kyle Hunt, a handful of white men picketed and attracted major news sources, largely for satiric fodder. Overall, the public reaction was belittling.<br /> <br />  </p> <p>Historically, <a href="http://www.socialsecurity.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v64n4/v64n4p1.html">white</a> <a href="http://reimaginerpe.org/node/2815">men</a> tend to be far wealthier than any other race and class combination. In addition, they make up the majority of the <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/296755-carney-defends-diversity-of-obamas-cabinet">Obama Administration</a>, the <a href="http://www.theatlanticcities.com/politics/2013/01/diversity-113th-congress-looks-pathetic-when-you-plot-it-map/4348/">House, Senate</a>, <a href="http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/labor/report/2012/07/12/11938/the-state-of-diversity-in-todays-workforce/">96 percent of all Fortune 500 CEOs,</a> and <a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2014/01/30/report-the-demographics-of-the-sunday-morning-p/197783">continue to get more exposure in TV news, commentary and entertainment</a>. They have made up 43½  of 44 of the last presidents of the free world, and this list could easily go on.</p> <p><br />  </p> <p>It’s hard to accept the concept of a white group, White Man March parti<a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/296755-carney-defends-diversity-of-obamas-cabinet">cipant Matt Parrott </a>says, <a href="http://www.theatlanticcities.com/politics/2013/01/diversity-113th-congress-looks-pathetic-when-you-plot-it-map/4348/">because most </a>so<a href="http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/labor/report/2012/07/12/11938/the-state-of-diversity-in-todays-workforce/">cial groups are formed out of injus</a>tice.</p> <p><br />  </p> <p><a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2014/01/30/report-the-demographics-of-the-sunday-morning-p/197783">“[A white group] seems as absurd to you as a ‘Non-Paraplegic Society</a>,’ or an advocacy group for people who don't have cancer,” Parrott says.  Parrott used (erroneous) racial slurs, sentences riddled with “you people,” and one rant ending with accusations of having “decadent, godless self-interested lives” at no one person or peoples that was evident, in his emails.</p> <p><br />  </p> <p>But the status of the white male of European descent in the United States is drastically changing. </p> <p><br />  </p> <p>To break it down, Pew and other research institutions predict that by 2040, the white race will be a minority; currently, <em>men</em> of the white race make up only <a href="http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/white-men-are-everywhere-20140131">31 percent of the population</a>.  White men are the only combination of race and gender that are decreasing in number of college degrees. They are more likely to use <a href="http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/quicktables/quicksetoptions.do;jsessionid=3E8357A26051A36B05636689B0E07517?reportKey=34481-0001_all%3A10">depressant</a> drugs such as pain relievers, sedatives, tranquilizers and heroin than any other combination of race and gender. When will the white men’s movement not be seen as a joke?</p> <p><br />  </p> <p>Richard Spencer, the Executive Director of the National Policy Institute, a white nationalist think tank, says there is a need for the ability to congregate as a racial community.  Spencer, who did not know of the White Man march and said it was “a fairly bad idea, poorly executed,” speaks calmly and with an easy laugh about these obviously extremely sensitive issues. He's opposite from Parrott; he’s easy to like.</p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2whitemen.jpg" style="height:417px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>“Identity is real and it’s really important,” Spencer states. “It may be the most important thing in the world.”</p> <p><br />  </p> <p>He says that taking away identity is stripping them of family, of what they take for granted, of what they love and what resonates with them.</p> <p><br />  </p> <p>“Whites in the United States certainly do have an identity, but it’s one that we dare not speak its name--there are certain things we know, like the collective white attitude, ideals and feelings.”</p> <p><br />  </p> <p>Speaking anecdotally, he said he feels like the prevalence of depressants and what he sees is a cycle of video games and pornography in the white male community could be evidentiary of the white man’s emotional status as aloof, with no need to breadwin, no race to procreate, no exceptional grandiosity about their accomplishments, as “dropping out of life.” He says you could say they’re immature, “or you could say that it’s a coping mechanism for a world that really doesn’t reward them.”</p> <p><br />  </p> <p>Vanderbilt Law Professor Carol Swain says that if whites become a minority that it should be expected that white people will act like other minority groups, and that it’s futile to argue that other groups have an interest and that whites do not: “There’s no way that you can argue that blacks have an interest, Hispanics have an interest, Asians have an interest and whites don’t.”  </p> <p><br />  </p> <p>Dr. Swain, a black woman, has written <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Carol-M.-Swain/e/B001ITXL8A">numerous </a>award-winning books on race and politics. In 2002, she published the book <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/New-White-Nationalism-America-Integration/dp/B005X4K6B6/ref=la_B001ITXL8A_1_4?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1396046015&amp;sr=1-4">The New White Nationalism in America: Its Challenge to Integratio</a>n</em> and it was largely discarded as sensationalism. Swain says she was criticized for having studied the issue at all because of the belief that ignoring a group will deter their growth. She thinks that’s the wrong way to handle the issue.</p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/1whitemen%20%28wiki%29.jpg" style="height:493px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>“I would much rather be informed about what’s taking place than to pretend it doesn’t exist and hope it will go away,” Swain says. “Here are these conditions, they’re emerging, and if we don’t take this issue seriously and engage in a dialogue, I think that these issues could become explosive at some point. History is waiting to see if I was right.”</p> <p><br />  </p> <p>Kyle Hunt’s main message at the White Man March was “Diversity equals White Genocide,” and he insists his definition of “Man” includes women. He says, via email, that despite their group’s inability to meet regularly in fear of violent repercussion, that much of their current communication is done through a loose network of activists and that the turnout and reaction to the White Man March “exceeded [his] expectations in every way.”  Parrott says that they didn’t expect favorable coverage anyway. In fact, they “fully expected mainstream media types to mock and ridicule the way [they] dress, the way [they] talk, and the concerns [they’re] voicing.”</p> <p><br /> Spencer had issue with the White Man March’s message at large, “Diversity equals White Genocide,” because it is clearly alienating and dramatizing a situation incomparable to actual genocides “like concentration camps and Rwanda, and horrifying events like that, and clearly that’s not happening.”</p> <p> </p> <p>He says that what Hunt and Parrott might mean to explain with shock rather than class, rash rather than fluidity, is that “When people talk about “we need more diversity,” that is essentially saying “we need less white people; we need more people of other races.’’ Whites, he agrees with Dr. Swain, need to be able to have pride groups in the same way as others because identity is important.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><em>Stephanie Stark, a contributing writer at </em>Highbrow Magazine<em>, is a freelance writer and web producer out of New York City. Her work focuses on social, religious and gender issues in the US. Follow her at @stephanie_stark.</em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/white-men" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">white men</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/white-male-movement" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">white male movement</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/white-guys" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">white guys</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/white-man-march" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">white man march</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/eruopean-descent" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">eruopean descent</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/white-women" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">white women</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/race" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">race</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/discrimincation" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">discrimincation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Stephanie Stark</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Wikipedia Commons; Google Images</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Thu, 19 Jun 2014 14:25:56 +0000 tara 4868 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4077-does-white-male-need-movement#comments Study: More Minorities Attend Underfunded, ‘Racially Separate’ Colleges https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/2723-study-more-minorities-attend-underfunded-racially-separate-colleges <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Tue, 08/20/2013 - 09:55</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1blackcolleges%20%28StevenDepolo%20Flickr%29.jpg?itok=y0Xr2nHk"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1blackcolleges%20%28StevenDepolo%20Flickr%29.jpg?itok=y0Xr2nHk" width="480" height="320" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> From the <a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/blacks-attend-underfunded-racially-separate-colleges/">Louisiana Weekly</a> and our content partner, <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2013/08/blacks-attend-underfunded-racially-separate-colleges.php">New America Media</a>:</p> <p>  </p> <p>  </p> <p> WASHINGTON (NNPA) — Despite high test scores and access to higher education, Black students often attend poorly-funded colleges and receive certificates instead of earning degrees, according to a recent report.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The report titled “Separate and Unequal,” by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, found that “white students are increasingly concentrated today, relative to population share, in the nation’s 468 most well-funded, selective four-year colleges and universities, while African-American and Hispanic students are more and more concentrated in the 3,250 least well-funded, open-access, two- and four-year colleges.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> According to the report, Black freshman enrollment increased by 73 percent compared to 15 percent for white freshman from 1995-2009, but 72 percent of Black college students attend resource-bare schools.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “The American postsecondary system increasingly has become a dual system of racially separate pathways, even as overall minority access to the postsecondary system has grown dramatically,” said Jeff Strohl, one of the report’s co-authors and the research director at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Blacks were underrepresented at the nation’s top schools by 8 percentage points, whites were overrepresented by 13 percentage points compared to their share of the college age (18-24 years-old) population, the study found.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Blacks accounted for just 7 percent of freshmen student enrollment at the best 468 colleges and universities in the nation, compared to white students who captured a 75 percent share of the students attending top schools.</p> <p>  </p> <p> According to the report, “Eighty-two percent of the growth in white freshman enrollment has been in the nation’s 468 most selective four-year colleges from 1995-2009.” On the other hand, Blacks represented 48 percent of the enrollment in open-access schools, while whites accounted for just 21 percent of the growth in such schools.</p> <p>  </p> <p> According to The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, a nonprofit organization that advocates for educational and training opportunities after high school, open-access schools are “public four-year colleges and universities that admit at least 80 percent of applicants.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Georgetown researchers found that even when Blacks and Hispanics finish high school with good SAT/ACT test scores, they are still don’t go to college as much as their white counterparts and are often guided into two-year and open-access colleges.</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2blackcolleges%20%28Fifth%20World%20Art%20Flickr%29.jpg" style="width: 640px; height: 404px;" /></p> <p>  </p> <p> “This data clearly shows that race matters, even controlling for readiness — high-scoring African Americans and Hispanics go to college at the same rates as similarly high-scoring Whites, but drop out more often and are less likely to graduate with a Bachelor’s degree,” stated the report.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Even as colleges and universities are urged to adopt race-neutral diversity policies for admission, the report found that admission policies based on class or income alone would not improve racial diversity in the our colleges and universities.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “While politically attractive, the direct substitution of class for race-based preferences does not yield the same numbers of African-American and Hispanic candidates as a more direct reliance on race-based admissions,” stated the report.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Only 12 percent of low-income Black college students graduate with bachelors’ degrees, compared to 23 percent of low-income whites that earn bachelors’ degrees.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The bachelor’s degree is often seen as the gateway to higher lifetime earnings with more than $2 million in earnings separating those with bachelors’ degrees and those without them.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “African Americans and Hispanics gain 21 percent in earnings advantages when they attend the more selective schools compared with 15 percent for whites who attend the same colleges,” stated the report.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Researchers admitted that admission policies alone would not change the enrollment numbers for Blacks at high-achieving selective colleges and universities; that would take a concerted effort among policymakers.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The report stated: “Ultimately, there is no better way to guarantee a certain level of racial diversity than by employing race per se at some juncture in the selection process.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> <em>This article originally published in the August 12, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.</em></p> <p>  </p> <p> <a href="http://www.louisianaweekly.com/blacks-attend-underfunded-racially-separate-colleges/">Louisiana Weekly</a></p> <p>  </p> <p> <em><strong>Steven Depolo; Fifth World Art (Flickr, Creative Commons).</strong></em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/black-colleges" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">black colleges</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/black-students" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">black students</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/minority-students" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">minority students</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/underfunded-colleges" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">underfunded colleges</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/education-inequality" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">education inequality</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/race" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">race</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/racially-separated-colleges" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">racially separated colleges</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/historic-black-colleges" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">historic black colleges</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Freddie Allen</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Steven Depolo (Flickr)</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Tue, 20 Aug 2013 13:55:02 +0000 tara 3383 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/2723-study-more-minorities-attend-underfunded-racially-separate-colleges#comments Trayvon Martin and Oscar Grant: Accidental Heroes https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/2619-trayvon-martin-and-oscar-grant-accidental-heroes <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 07/17/2013 - 09:42</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumoscartrayvon.jpg?itok=g1oUpX8m"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumoscartrayvon.jpg?itok=g1oUpX8m" width="480" height="268" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> From <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2013/07/trayvon-martin-more-than-a-hoodiesup-hashtag.php">New America Media</a> and <a href="http://www.firstpost.com/">FirstPost</a>:</p> <p>  </p> <p> SAN FRANCISCO -- The woman in the pink stretch pants walked out of Theatre 15 holding her tray of movie theatre goodies -- an almost empty tub of popcorn, a large cup of soda. Her shoulders were shaking as she walked. She was weeping.</p> <p>  </p> <p> "He was just trying to go home," she told the man with her. "He was just trying to go home."</p> <p>  </p> <p> She was repeating a line from the film we had just seen. Fruitvale Station was based on one day, the last day, in the short life of 22-year-old Oscar Grant III. It was the early hours of New Year's Day 2009. Grant was coming home in the subway to Oakland from having gone to San Francisco to watch the fireworks with his friends. His mother had told him to take the subway because she was worried about drunk driving. Grant never made it home. An altercation with the subway police suddenly turned fatal. A police officer fired a shot at Grant while he was lying on the ground.</p> <p>  </p> <p> As he lay bleeding on the platform, he pleaded, "We're just trying to get home."</p> <p>  </p> <p> They were all trying to get home -- Oscar Grant in Oakland, Trayvon Martin in Florida, or the woman who was raped in a bus in New Delhi and christened Nirbhaya or the fearless one by the media, or the woman gangraped on her way back from college in Kamdhuni near Kolkata. They didn't want to spark off great protests. They didn't want to become symbols, placards or posters. They didn't want docudramas made about their lives.</p> <p>  </p> <p> One kind of iconic heroes -- like the young man who stood before the tanks of Tiananmen Square or the monk who set himself on fire in Vietnam -- are men and women who deliberately embrace a certain heroism. But the Grants and Nirbhayas are a different breed of heroes -- the accidental kind, ordinary people just trying to get home.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The release of Fruitvale Station coincided with the acquittal of George Zimmerman, the man accused of killing Trayvon Martin. The 17-year-old was gunned down in a gate community in Florida, where he was staying with his father's fiancée. Zimmerman, a neighbourhood watch coordinator thought Martin looked suspicious in his hoodie, like he was up to no good. By the time the police arrived, Martin had been fatally shot in the chest. Zimmerman pleaded self-defense. On July 13, a jury found him not guilty of second degree murder or even manslaughter.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Now Trayvon Martin too is a poster, a hashtag, #HoodiesUp, a chant on the street.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2oscartrayvon.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 335px;" /></p> <p>  </p> <p> "Trayvon Martin did not have to die, We all know the reason why, the whole system is guilty," chanted hundreds of marchers as they walked through downtown San Francisco carrying placards with Martin's name, beating drums, shouting slogans. "We are all Trayvon Martin now," read the banners. But we are not, really. Just as we are not all Oscar Grants. Or Nirbhayas. These were individuals, not ideas, not symbols. These were people with flawed, ordinary lives which ended in a tragic moment of injustice. It's the imperfections of these lives that make the deaths so individually poignant.</p> <p>  </p> <p> In Fruitvale Station, we see Oscar Grant struggling with his relationship. He had lost his job because he was habitually late, he had a stash of drugs and a bit of a temper. But on that last day, he bought crabs for his mother's birthday, flirted with a young white woman at a supermarket and played with his little daughter. As the credits roll you realize this man will never again give his daughter a piggy back ride, will never fight and make up with his girlfriend, will never put gas in his car. The movie restores to Oscar Grant his ordinary humanity, flawed and real. In Fruitvale Station, he is once more a person instead of a rallying cry for protester or a punching bag for his opponents.</p> <p>  </p> <p> In the court room, the defense tries to put the victim on trial. Kolkata's Park Street rape victim finds her character shredded in the public square because she was drinking at a night club. Martin's mother is asked in court if she was avoiding the fact that her son could have done something to cause his own death. To counter those attacks, we look for the perfect innocent victim whose wholesomeness makes them unassailable. And in doing so, protestors often forget that essential humanity of the victims they put on their posters.</p> <p>  </p> <p> I walk out of Fruitvale Station wondering why HoodiesUp is the hashtag of the day when Oscar Grant didn't have his hoodie up. Then I realize I am confusing Grant with Martin, their stories blurring into one.</p> <p>  </p> <p> "It's important to remember the work of justice is a communal effort," said Rev. Theon Johnson III from the United Methodist ministry of Glide Church. "We have to stand up for the sake of all the Trayvon Martins." But the "communal effort" doesn't mean we are all Trayvon Martin now. It just means that in Trayvon Martin's short tragic life we might see a shadowy reflection of our own.</p> <p>  </p> <p> "If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon," said President Obama in the aftermath of the shooting. At the rally protesting the verdict in San Francisco, Cinnamon echoes the sentiment: "I work with high risk youth in Berkeley. I have a brother the same age as Trayvon. Some of my students knew Oscar. So I came out."</p> <p>  </p> <p> Maya Robinson Napier too is worried about her husband and her father. As the protesters shouted in Union Square surrounded by curious tourists, cops in blue uniforms and the great buildings of Saks Fifth Avenue and Tiffany's, Napier shakes her head.</p> <p>  </p> <p> "We are standing here with all this Louis Vuitton and stuff. And this kid had nothing. And what he had they took away from him," she said. "He was not a perfect kid. But he didn't deserve to die."</p> <p>  </p> <p> Her voice shook. And a tear trickled down her cheek. More than the angry slogans about white supremacy, black incarceration rates and rotten systems, that tear felt real, restoring for a moment, through its quiet mourning, the humanity of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <a href="http://www.firstpost.com/">FirstPost</a></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/oscar-grant" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">oscar grant</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/fruitvale" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">fruitvale</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/trayvon-martin" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Trayvon Martin</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/george-zimmerman" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">George Zimmerman</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/zimmerman-trial" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">zimmerman trial</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/verdict-zimmerman-trial" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">verdict in zimmerman trial</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/race" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">race</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/race-issues" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">race issues</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/discrimination" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">discrimination</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/civil-rights" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">civil rights</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Sandip Roy</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Wed, 17 Jul 2013 13:42:06 +0000 tara 3189 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/2619-trayvon-martin-and-oscar-grant-accidental-heroes#comments The Race for the White House and the Issue of Racial Divide https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1758-race-white-house-and-issue-racial-divide <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Fri, 11/02/2012 - 15:05</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumwhitehouse%20%28Rob%20Young%20Wiki%29.jpg?itok=rokxJNMl"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumwhitehouse%20%28Rob%20Young%20Wiki%29.jpg?itok=rokxJNMl" width="480" height="319" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> From <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2012/11/election-2012-and-the-deep-racial-divide.php">New America Media</a> and <a href="http://www.theroot.com/">The Root</a>:</p> <p>  </p> <p> (The Root) -- Last week, four-star retired general and former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed President Barack Obama's re-election bid. Powell, a lifelong Republican, broke with his party ranks for the second time, having chosen Obama over fellow veteran John McCain in 2008.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Powell waited until after the candidates' foreign policy debate to make the announcement, observing that President Obama got us "out of one war, started to get us out of a second war and did not get us into any new wars." On Mitt Romney, Powell was reticent: "The governor who was saying things at the debate ... was saying things that were quite different from what he said earlier. I'm not quite sure which Gov. Romney we'd be getting with respect to foreign policy."</p> <p>  </p> <p> Powell -- who first supported the war in Iraq but left the Bush administration after its failure to find weapons of mass destruction -- is a proven statesman and war hero. "I don't sense he's thought through these things as thoroughly as he should have," Powell said of Romney.</p> <p>  </p> <p> He also highlighted President Obama's success in saving a diving economy and Romney's lack of a fiscal plan beyond tax cuts that favor the wealthy. As for his party affiliation, Powell said, "I'm a Republican of a more moderate mold. That's something of a dying breed, I'm sorry to say."</p> <p>  </p> <p> Despite Powell's reasonable, well-articulated explanation, John Sununu, co-chair of the Romney campaign, abruptly concluded that Powell endorsed Obama simply because both men are black.</p> <p>  </p> <p> "When you take a look at Colin Powell, you have to wonder whether that's an endorsement based on issues or whether he's got a slightly different reason for preferring President Obama," Sununu told CNN. When asked to expound, he continued, "I think when you have somebody of your own race that you're proud of being president of the United States -- I applaud Colin for standing with him."</p> <p>  </p> <p> Mary Curtis wrote this week in the <em>Washington Post</em> that Sununu's reaction was to "reduce two complex men to skin color. Sununu can disagree with Obama because of policy, but when Powell supports him, it has to be race."</p> <p>  </p> <p> Enter the race card -- played by old white men in the Republican Party.</p> <p>  </p> <p>  </p> <p> The condescending nature of Sununu's comments aside, it speaks to a mindset in the modern GOP, and one that is having measurable effects on the 2012 election -- namely, white males are voting against the president in record numbers, and race seems to be the only explanation.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Sununu, of course, has little credibility or integrity. In 1991 he was forced to resign as White House chief of staff under then-President George H.W. Bush after press reports that Sununu had abused taxpayer dollars by using government jets for ski and golf trips, as well as other personal use, while classifying the travel as official business.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Besides a weakness for the high life, Sununu also has a penchant for race-baiting and Birtherism. He called the president "lazy" in an interview with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell and was recorded just a few months ago saying that Obama needed to "learn how be an American." (It's a curious statement, considering that Sununu himself is only a naturalized citizen of the U.S. -- born in Cuba to parents of Palestinian descent.)</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/mediumobamaandromney%20%28NAM%29_1.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 335px; " /></p> <p>  </p> <p> Sununu even doubled down on his initial allegations in an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, claiming that President Obama "has created more racial division than any administration in history." Though these comments seem extreme, they express a sentiment that has become mainstream in conservative political circles and is having real effects.</p> <p>  </p> <p> A Washington Post-ABC News poll released last week found that Romney enjoys the support of white males over President Obama by a margin of 2-to-1: 65 percent to 32 percent. In 2008 Obama lost the white-male vote by 16 points, based on exit polls, which means that his lack of support among white men has doubled.</p> <p>  </p> <p> And among working-class whites without college degrees, President Obama trails Romney 58 percent to 35 percent. Why does it matter? White males made up 36 percent of the total electorate in the last presidential contest, and whites in general made up 74 percent of all voters.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Will Marshall, president of the Progressive Policy Institute, told CBS News that many white American males "believe the economic policies of Democrats have benefited somebody else -- not them. Women, minorities, interest groups. They don't feel Democrats have championed the interests of white male voters in modern times as they did in the days of Roosevelt and Truman."</p> <p>  </p> <p>  </p> <p> So if you're Romney, dedicated to using nostalgic references that cast you as Ronald Reagan defeating one-term President Jimmy "Barack" Carter, then manipulating white Americans to vote along racial lines is a winning strategy. Why would surrogates like Sununu knowingly sow the seeds of racial animus and divisiveness? The answer can be found in the outcome.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Romney maintains his lead among white voters, even though nearly 50 percent of them believe that he would do more to favor the wealthy than the poor and middle class. And according to a recent survey conducted by the Associated Press, in the past four years the number of Americans who express explicit anti-black attitudes has increased from 48 percent in 2008 to 51 percent today. Implicit racial bias -- the kind that people may neither admit nor realize they harbor -- increased sharply from 49 percent to 56 percent. Survey respondents used Sununu's word, "lazy," and other words, like "violent," to describe African Americans and Hispanics.</p> <p>  </p> <p> It doesn't take a rigorous education in America's racialized political history to see that propaganda like that used by Sununu has a direct effect on how the wider populace perceives President Obama -- and black people in general. Andrew Sullivan, a columnist at the Daily Beast, recently called this phenomenon a cold civil war and explained that it's been slowly brewing since Obama took office.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The AP report also revealed that Republicans were more likely than Democrats to express explicit racial prejudice, by a margin of 79 percent to 32 percent. Indeed, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, a white Republican and Powell's former chief of staff, told MSNBC's Ed Schultz last week that the GOP is "full of racists."</p> <p>  </p> <p> Party leaders -- and campaign officials -- can neither ignore these survey results nor deny any responsibility for having created them. Unlike Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and Donald Trump, who race-bait to promote their own personal, partisan agendas, Sununu is a chairman of the Romney presidential campaign. His behavior can be seen only as an explicit strategy. Even later, when Sununu released a statement clarifying his ill-conceived words, there remained no apology -- and not a word, at all, from Romney himself.</p> <p>  </p> <p> It seems that when the ultimate prize is the Oval Office, national unity, racial harmony and democratic ideals are welcome casualties.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> <em>E.dward Wyckoff Williams is contributing editor at The Root. He is a columnist and political analyst, appearing on Al-Jazeera, MSNBC, CBS Washington and national syndicated radio.</em></p> <p> <em><strong>Photos:</strong> Rob Young (Wikipedia Commons); New America Media.</em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/elections" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">elections</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/obama" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Obama</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/mitt-romney" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Mitt Romney</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/race" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">race</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/racial-divide" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">racial divide</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/colin-powell" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">colin powell</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/john-sununu" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">john sununu</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/racism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">racism</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/republicans" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Republicans</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/democrats" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Democrats</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ronald-reagan" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Ronald Reagan</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/jimmy-carter" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">jimmy carter</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Edward Wyckoff Williams</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Rob Young, Wikipedia Commons</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Fri, 02 Nov 2012 19:05:37 +0000 tara 1853 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1758-race-white-house-and-issue-racial-divide#comments