Retrograde Waters

quickhits: Montgomery, AL police chief apologizes for his...

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 18:42:15 -0600

Montgomery, AL police chief apologizes for his department’s appalling civil rights history.

Raw Story:

Rep. John Lewis (R-GA) was moved to tears on Saturday by an apology from a police chief in Montgomery, Alabama, who said his department utterly failed to protect civil rights marchers as they disembarked from a Grayhound bus into a segregated terminal in 1961.

Lewis was one of 21 protesters who stepped off that bus and into an angry melee as more than 300 white southerners attacked the group with baseball bats and other blunt objects. Despite an order by U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy to protect these so-called “Freedom Riders,” police backed off in Montgomery and let the mob have its way.

Appearing with Lewis on Saturday after a symbolic march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge near Selma, Alabama — where 600 civil rights marchers were brutally attacked by police in 1965 — Montgomery Chief of Police Kevin Murphy formally apologized for the bus terminal incident and presented Lewis with his badge.

“It means a great deal,” Lewis said, according to MSNBC. “I teared up. I tried to keep from crying.”

it pays to point out that Chief Murphy was in no way responsible for what his predecessors did in ‘65. Yet he apologized anyway. And there’s a lesson here for anyone who’s ever argued “I didn’t do ____, that happened a long time ago. Why should I be held responsible for ____?”

They’re not being held responsible for the act, they’re being held responsible for the consequence. America’s history of slavery, segregation, and racism has left this a profoundly unequal society and that inequality benefits whites. You may not be responsible for the crimes of the past, but you benefit from them — whether those crimes are slavery or Native American genocide or the conquest of Mexican lands or any of a raft of other crimes. No one’s asking anyone to give anything back. No one’s asking anyone to be punished for anything. All that’s being asked is that people acknowledge a simple fact — that they would not be where they are today if it weren’t for the crimes of their forebears and that many of the privileges they take for granted come at the expense others who were less fortunate in the parentage sweepstakes.

It’s about looking at the world with a measure of realism and recognizing that history influences all of our lives, for good or for bad,

"If you continually bomb another country and kill their civilians, not only the people of that..."

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 12:26:24 -0600

“

If you continually bomb another country and kill their civilians, not only the people of that country but the part of the world that identifies with it will increasingly despise the country doing it.

That’s the ultimate irony, the most warped paradox, of US discourse on these issues: the very policies that Americans constantly justify by spouting the Terrorism slogan are exactly what causes anti-American hatred and anti-American Terrorism in the first place. The most basic understanding of human nature renders that self-evident, but this polling data indisputably confirms it.

”

- Glenn Greenwald, “Obama, the US & the Muslim world: The animosity deepens”

A Gallup poll released on Thursday surveyed public opinion of the US in Pakistan where ”more than nine in 10 Pakistanis (92%) disapprove of US leadership and 4% approve, the lowest approval rating Pakistanis have ever given”. Worse, “a majority (55%) say interaction between Muslim and Western societies is ‘more of a threat’ [than a benefit], up significantly from 39% in 2011.”

(via thepeoplesrecord)

Photo

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 12:11:05 -0600

"If a young woman in middle school or high school hangs up a poster of Barack Obama in her room, this..."

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 12:08:44 -0600

“

If a young woman in middle school or high school hangs up a poster of Barack Obama in her room, this is seen as acceptable. It’s fine for women to admire men and want to be like them.

If a young man (the same age) hangs up a poster of Hillary Clinton in his room, this is seen as odd (maybe even troubling, is he gay? Oh no!).

Society tells us young men can’t think of women as role models, unless they’re a family member, whereas young women can admire and seek to emulate anyone, regardless of gender.

If you’re a young man, and if you have a poster on your wall with a woman, she had better be half-naked in a bikini, even if the Ronald Reagan or Gen. Patton poster next to it obviously features the man fully-clothed.

Young men are not to taught to think of women as role models. They are taught to think of them as either family members or sexual objects. There is no other category presented.

”

-
http://charlesclymer.blogspot.com/2013/02/why-are-we-so-ashamed-of-our-women.html (via there-was-a-girl)

THIS IS SO TRUE!

(via jahalath)

I’ve recently gotten obsessed with Jeri Ellsworth. (She is a self-taught Electrical Engineer and very brilliant.)

When my friend saw that I was following her on facebook he messaged me with this comment:

“She’s pretty hot.”

That in itself isn’t a bad thing. I mean, I find her attractive too but that’s all he saw her as. That’s also all he sees Felicia Day as. I always feel ashamed that he was the one who introduced me to her and that he introduced her as a “Hot nerd girl”.

I felt like he wasn’t seeing Jeri for all her achievements or Felicia for all her contributions to gaming culture. He just saw them as hot nerd girls.

That scares me. What if you were a girl trying to make it through the field and you weren’t conventionally attractive.

What then?

(via mistressofheight)

"Privileged kids go to counseling, poor kids go to jail."

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 12:07:40 -0600

“Privileged kids go to counseling, poor kids go to jail.”

- Judge Mathis, speaking the truth (via sofacity)

"The problem is that they support the very policies that keep people suffering in the first place,..."

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 11:45:16 -0600

“The problem is that they support the very policies that keep people suffering in the first place, e.g.: opposition of an improved minimum wage, cutting public education, privatizing social security, opposing universal health care, etc., and they then proceed to claim they are pro-poor because a portion of their check they never see goes to a charity somewhere. They are, in effect, voting for an unjust war and then claiming moral high ground by donating medical supplies to battlefield hospitals.”

- On the Argument That Conservatives Give More to Charity (via azspot)

The Top 10 Most Startling Facts About People of Color and Criminal Justice in the United States

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 11:41:00 -0600

The Top 10 Most Startling Facts About People of Color and Criminal Justice in the United States :

sinidentidades:

1. While people of color make up about 30 percent of the United States’ population, they account for 60 percent of those imprisoned. The prison population grew by 700 percent from 1970 to 2005, a rate that is outpacing crime and population rates. The incarceration rates disproportionately impact men of color: 1 in every 15 African American men and 1 in every 36 Hispanic men are incarcerated in comparison to 1 in every 106 white men.

2. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, one in three black men can expect to go to prison in their lifetime. Individuals of color have a disproportionate number of encounters with law enforcement, indicating that racial profiling continues to be a problem. A report by the Department of Justice found that blacks and Hispanics were approximately three times more likely to be searched during a traffic stop than white motorists. African Americans were twice as likely to be arrested and almost four times as likely to experience the use of force during encounters with the police.

3. Students of color face harsher punishments in school than their white peers, leading to a higher number of youth of color incarcerated. Black and Hispanic students represent more than 70 percent of those involved in school-related arrests or referrals to law enforcement. Currently, African Americans make up two-fifths and Hispanics one-fifth of confined youth today.

4. According to recent data by the Department of Education, African American students are arrested far more often than their white classmates. The data showed that 96,000 students were arrested and 242,000 referred to law enforcement by schools during the 2009-10 school year. Of those students, black and Hispanic students made up more than 70 percent of arrested or referred students. Harsh school punishments, from suspensions to arrests, have led to high numbers of youth of color coming into contact with the juvenile-justice system and at an earlier age.

5. African American youth have higher rates of juvenile incarceration and are more likely to be sentenced to adult prison. According to the Sentencing Project, even though African American juvenile youth are about 16 percent of the youth population, 37 percent of their cases are moved to criminal court and 58 percent of African American youth are sent to adult prisons.

6. As the number of women incarcerated has increased by 800 percent over the last three decades, women of color have been disproportionately represented. While the number of women incarcerated is relatively low, the racial and ethnic disparities are startling. African American women are three times more likely than white women to be incarcerated, while Hispanic women are 69 percent more likely than white women to be incarcerated.

7. The war on drugs has been waged primarily in communities of color where people of color are more likely to receive higher offenses. According to the Human Rights Watch, people of color are no more likely to use or sell illegal drugs than whites, but they have higher rate of arrests. African Americans comprise 14 percent of regular drug users but are 37 percent of those arrested for drug offenses. From 1980 to 2007 about one in three of the 25.4 million adults arrested for drugs was African American.

8. Once convicted, black offenders receive longer sentences compared to white offenders. The U.S. Sentencing Commission stated that in the federal system black offenders receive sentences that are 10 percent longer than white offenders for the same crimes. The Sentencing Project reports that African Americans are 21 percent more likely to receive mandatory-minimum sentences than white defendants and are 20 percent more like to be sentenced to prison.

9. Voter laws that prohibit people with felony convictions to vote disproportionately impact men of color. An estimated 5.3 million Americans are denied the right to vote based on a past felony conviction. Felony disenfranchisement is exaggerated by racial disparities in the criminal-justice system, ultimately denying 13 percent of African American men the right to vote. Felony-disenfranchisement policies have led to 11 states denying the right to vote to more than 10 percent of their African American population.

10. Studies have shown that people of color face disparities in wage trajectory following release from prison. Evidence shows that spending time in prison affects wage trajectories with a disproportionate impact on black men and women. The results show no evidence of racial divergence in wages prior to incarceration; however, following release from prison, wages grow at a 21 percent slower rate for black former inmates compared to white ex-convicts. A number of states have bans on people with certain convictions working in domestic health-service industries such as nursing, child care, and home health care—areas in which many poor women and women of color are disproportionately concentrated.

girljanitor: THE MYTH THAT “MINORITIES” GET MORE SCHOLARSHIPS...

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 11:33:16 -0600

girljanitor:

THE MYTH THAT “MINORITIES” GET MORE SCHOLARSHIPS DEBUNKED SINCE 5EVER

This is something that comes up time and time again like clockwork.Here’s a”just the facts” post.

Racists LOVE this tired old saw. The problem is that it’s complete and utter bullshit, it always HAS been, and IT IS THE OPPOSITE OF REALITY.

Caucasian students receive more than three-quarters (76%) of all institutional merit-based scholarship and grant funding, even though they represent less than two-thirds (62%) of the student population.
Caucasian students are 40% more likely to win private scholarships than minority students. These statistics demonstrate that, as a whole, private sector scholarship programs tend to perpetuate historical inequities in the distribution of scholarships according to race.

-The Distribution of Grants and Scholarships by Race

BUT WHAT ABOUT FINANCIAL NEED BASED SCHOLARSHIPS????

OH HEY IS THERE ANOTHER SOURCE FOR THIS?

It debunks the race myth, which claims that minority students receive more than their fair share of scholarships. The reality is that minority students are less likely to win private scholarships or receive merit-based institutional grants than Caucasian students. Among undergraduate students enrolled full-time/full-year in Bachelor’s degree programs at four-year colleges and universities, minority students represent about a third of applicants but slightly more than a quarter of private scholarship recipients. Caucasian students receive more than three-quarters (76%) of all institutional merit-based scholarship and grant funding, even though they represent less than two-thirds (62%) of the student population. Caucasian students are 40% more likely to win private scholarships than minority students.

STOP PARROTING RACIST MYTHS INSTEAD OF ACTUALLY FACT CHECKING

Scholarships Go Disproportionately To White Students

White Students More Likely To Win Scholarships

White students get Minority Scholarships

Texas State Offers Scholarship EXCLUSIVELY FOR WHITE PEOPLE

One Million dollars’ Worth of White “Ethnic” Scholarships Don’t Trouble Student Group Protesting “Minority Scholarships

B-b-but what about the “Evils” Of Affirmative Action in Higher Education??? Oh yeah, WHITE WOMEN ARE THE #1 BENEFICIARIES OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION.

So stop saying this shit. you’re just plain fucking WRONG. Also, racist.

the-uncensored-she: sinidentidades: An alleged image of Golden...

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 11:32:42 -0600

the-uncensored-she:

sinidentidades:

An alleged image of Golden Dawn members patrolling a Tripolis hospital searching for immigrant patients. Once they find people they perceive as immigrants, they use force to remove them from the hospitals. Rumor has it this is now a regular practice throughout Greece. What’s worse is police officers haven’t tried to stop them and some of the hospitals’ staff even cooperate with them.

Racist and xenophobic sentiments within a society are always exploited and even promoted by fascists during an economic crisis. Rather than blaming the plutocrats, corrupt politicians and corporate greed for a country’s economic decline, fascists will blame PoC, religious minorities and immigrants in order to gain sociopolitical power.

"Let us not be deceived — Nixon, Bush, Obama, they’re war criminals. They have killed innocent people..."

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 11:31:18 -0600

““Let us not be deceived — Nixon, Bush, Obama, they’re war criminals. They have killed innocent people in the name of the struggle for freedom, but they’re suspending the law, very much like Wall Street criminals. The law is suspended for them, but the law applies for the rest of us.””

- Cornel West (via thepeoplesrecord)

rosiesays: Oppression is cooking being “women’s work,” while the overwhelming majority of...

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 11:31:08 -0600

rosiesays:

Oppression is cooking being “women’s work,” while the overwhelming majority of top restaurant chefs being male.

Oppression is fashion being a “silly girl thing,” while the top earning designers and CEOs in fashion being male.

Oppression is reducing women to consumers profiting a male system, even in fields that we supposedly dominate.

"in the areas of both food and sex, boys/men are encouraged to have ‘healthy’ appetitites, but..."

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 12:47:09 -0600

“in the areas of both food and sex, boys/men are encouraged to have ‘healthy’ appetitites, but girls/women musn’t be ‘greedy’”

- Annie Fursland, ‘Eve was framed: Food and Sex and Women’s Shame’, from ‘Fed up and hungry - women, oppression and food’ by Marilyn Lawrence (via comicbooksandallthatjazz)

Hoooly shit this is so intensely true

(via little-sugarcube)

curseofthefanartlords: Sometimes my own standards depress me.

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 10:13:42 -0600

curseofthefanartlords:

Sometimes my own standards depress me.

llile: DIY paper lanterns

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 07:40:38 -0600

llile:

DIY paper lanterns

"TO THE YOUNG WHO WANT TO DIE Sit down. Inhale. Exhale. The gun will wait. The lake will wait. The..."

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 05:07:08 -0600

“

TO THE YOUNG WHO WANT TO DIE

Sit down. Inhale. Exhale.

The gun will wait. The lake will wait.
The tall gall in the small seductive vial
will wait will wait:
will wait a week: will wait through April.
You do not have to die this certain day.
Death will abide, will pamper your postponement.
I assure you death will wait. Death has
a lot of time. Death can
attend to you tomorrow. Or next week. Death is
just down the street; is most obliging neighbor;
can meet you any moment.

You need not die today.
Stay here—through pout or pain or peskyness.
Stay here. See what the news is going to be tomorrow.

Graves grow no green that you can use.
Remember, green’s your color. You are Spring.

”

- Gwendolyn Brooks (via parasitic)

"I was the first of the Potter actors to learn to drive. I passed my test at the second time of..."

Sat, 16 Feb 2013 02:33:42 -0600

“I was the first of the Potter actors to learn to drive. I passed my test at the second time of trying. On the set, there’d always be a lot of talk about cars among the cast, although Daniel Radcliffe never joined in. He’s never been into cars at all. My first ambition was to become an ice-cream man, which is why I bought the Bedford van. Not long after I first got it, I pulled into a pub to do a U-turn and there were eight kids with their pocket money out, hoping to buy a 99 or whatever. But I had nothing to give them. I’ve learnt my lesson since then. I keep my van well stocked. It’s got a proper machine that dispenses Mr Whippy ice cream and I buy my lollies wholesale – 50 for a tenner – so I never run short. I’m not allowed to sell my merchandise. I’d need a licence for that. I tend to avoid July and August, but the rest of the year I’ll drive around the local villages and if I see some kids looking like they’re in need of ice creams, I’ll pull over and dish them out for free. They’ll say, “Ain’t you Ron Weasley?” And I’ll say, “It’s strange, I get asked that a lot.” The van often comes in useful. I drove it up to the set on the last day of filming on Harry Potter. The cast and crew were having a barbecue and I supplied the lollies and ice creams.’”

- Rupert Grint.

This man is better than you. (via theuncultured)

goodtypography: Rogerseller

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 20:27:01 -0600

goodtypography:

Rogerseller

grrrlfever: you keep saying “we’re all human” but all i hear is “i want to completely ignore...

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 17:53:54 -0600

grrrlfever:

you keep saying “we’re all human” but all i hear is “i want to completely ignore institutionalised oppression and shut my eyes and pretend everyone is treated equally to escape the guilt of the numerous privileges i’m afforded”

itsaverypotteeeersenioryear: sarcasminc: arigoato: funny text posts arent my Puns like that...

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 15:20:31 -0600

itsaverypotteeeersenioryear:

sarcasminc:

arigoato:

funny text posts arent my

Puns like that could get you in

You guys really need to give it a

keepcalm-andpartyyon: A comma splice walks into a bar, it has a drink and then leaves. A question...

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 12:47:13 -0600

keepcalm-andpartyyon:

A comma splice walks into a bar, it has a drink and then leaves.

A question mark walks into a bar?

Two quotation marks “Walk into” a bar.

A gerund and an infinitive walk into a bar, drinking to drink.

The bar was walked into by a passive voice.

Three intransitive verbs walk into a bar. They sit. They drink. They leave.