This Is What Happens To Court Clerks Who Refuse To Issue Same Sex Marriage Licenses

In Texas, Hood County Clerk Katie Lang had refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples for well over a week after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges. The conservative group Texas Values rallied in her defense and even the Family Research Council propped up her discriminatory cause.

[…]

Monday morning, Cato and Stapleton filed a federal lawsuit, which describes their experiences being rejected as “humiliating and degrading.” Less than two hours after the suit was filed, Lang’s office issued the couple a marriage license.

Continue reading:  This Is What Happens To Court Clerks Who Refuse To Issue Same Sex Marriage Licenses

Related story:  Sam Brownback (R-KS) signs sweeping anti-LGBT executive order

Inside the mind of Charleston Massacre shooter Dylann Roof and the culture of White Supremacy

By Robert A. Vella

I stumbled upon this fine exposé by David Nir of the Daily Kos which delves deep into the white supremacist psyche of Charleston Massacre shooter Dylann Roof.  It reveals not only Roof’s hatred of blacks and other ethnic minorities, but also his disturbingly confused attitude towards Jews.

Although I won’t cite the text and quotations here (they’re very offensive), I strongly urge everyone to read the article for yourself.  Keep in mind that the racist views of Roof are not limited to the lunatic fringe of right-wing extremism, and that they are indicative of a far more extensive problem in America regarding racial attitudes.

See:  Dylann Roof: ‘If we could turn every jew blue for 24 hours, I think there would be a mass awakening’

What really triggered police misconduct at a pool party in McKinney, Texas

Reblogged from The Secular Jurist:

By Robert A. Vella

By now, you’ve probably heard about the incident in McKinney, Texas where police officer Eric Casebolt – who has since resigned (see:  Police officer who slammed black girl to the ground at McKinney, Texas, pool party resigns) – went ballistic on a group of black teenagers attending a pool party.  Understandably, it has reignited the ongoing national debate over race relations in America where actual and potential victims of police misconduct see all cops as racists and where white conservatives see all black people as criminals.

However, what really triggered this incident appears to have less to do with either predisposition and more to do with how police respond to citizen reports of “criminal” behavior.

From Terrance Heath of Campaign for America’s Future – Police Violence Against Blacks Has An Economic Context:

A similar economic backdrop exists in McKinney, Texas, where another incident of excessive use of force this weekend led to more headlines and protests. African-American residents of the Craig Ranch neighborhood, a gated planned community in McKinney, held an end-of-the-school-year party at the community swimming pool, attended by a racially mixed group of teenagers, most of whom lived in Craig Ranch. Residents complained that the teenagers were too rowdy. The organizer of the party said that a security guard appeared and began asking the black teenagers if they had pool cards, and insisting the black teenagers leave.

Witnesses agree that the situation escalated when a white adult resident told the African-American teenagers to “go back to section 8 housing,” got into an argument with, and slapped the African-American teenager who organized the party.

McKinney, Texas — which Money magazine ranked last year as the best place to live in America — has a long history of housing discrimination. The city is split by Highway 75. The wealthier section of McKinney (where the Craig Ranch community is) lies west of Highway 75 and is 86 percent white. The older, poorer section of town sits east of the highway, and is 49 percent white.

In 2009, McKinney settled a large housing discrimination lawsuit, alleging that the city was blocking the development of affordable housing for tenants with Section 8 vouchers, in the whiter, more affluent west side of the city. But a court settlement doesn’t mean the issue of housing discrimination is settled, as the reported comment about Section 8 housing indicate. The white resident alleged to have made this comment obviously associated African Americans with what she considered slum housing.

Another reported comment that the black teenagers should get used to the bars outside the pool because “that’s all they were going to see,” reflects assumptions many people make about young blacks.

Just because some racist, segregationist white people don’t like seeing blacks in their gated community, isn’t sufficient cause for police to blindly obey their perverse desires and engage in some sort of American-style ethnic cleansing.  Before taking any action, the police should have thoroughly investigated the situation and, even if laws were indeed broken, resolved the matter peacefully.  From what I’ve been able to determine, the only crimes which might have been committed are misdemeanor trespassing (by the teenagers) and misdemeanor assault & battery (by the residents) – neither of which warranted the type of police response exhibited by officer Casebolt.

The failure here, and evidenced throughout the nation, falls squarely upon law enforcement administration.  Cops who are poorly trained in proper response techniques, or who cannot apply the law equally and without bias, are not qualified to be police officers and should be retrained or removed from duty.  Obviously, such professional managerial oversight is severely lacking across America.

Further reading:

The only good news about the McKinney pool party is the white kids’ response to racism

Keeping black people away from white swimming pools is an American tradition

What Happened When Scientists Put African Americans On An African Diet And Africans On An American Diet

In a study conducted at the University of Pittsburgh, 20 African Americans and 20 South Africans switched diets for two weeks. In this time, the Africans consumed traditional American food — meat and cheese high in fat content — while African Americans took on a traditional African diet — high in fiber and low in fat, with plenty of vegetables, beans, and cornmeal, with little meat.

After the exchange, researchers performed colonoscopies on both groups and found that those in the African diet group increased the production of butyrate, a fatty acid proven to protect against colon cancer. Members of the American diet group, on the other hand, developed changes in their gut that scientists say precede the development of cancerous cells.

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2015/05/15/3658983/going-back-to-the-motherland/

Idaho abortion restrictions are unconstitutional: appeals court

An Idaho law that prohibits abortions of fetuses 20 or more weeks after fertilization is unconstitutional, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Friday.

The ruling, from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, also struck down an Idaho law that required all second-trimester abortions to occur in a hospital.

Bans on abortion after 20 weeks have been passed in 12 U.S. states since 2010, according to NARAL Pro-Choice America, an abortion rights advocacy group. The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives passed a measure this month that would ban most abortions after 20 weeks. The bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate, and Democratic President Barack Obama opposes it.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/29/us-usa-abortion-idUSKBN0OE25O20150529

The absent black father myth—debunked by CDC

by Frank Vyan Walton

We’ve been told, quite frequently and repeatedly that the problems in the black community that we’ve seen in Ferguson and Baltimore recently are not the fault of biased, paramilitary, paranoid and violent policing (even if the Bureau of Justice Statistics indicates that black people are three times more likely to be subject to law enforcement uses of force). They are not the fault of racist red-lining that created these impoverished neighborhoods in the first place. They are not the fault of bigoted lending and hiring practices that create roadblocks for those attempting to escape those neighborhoods. And the fact that black students are disciplined, suspended and expelled far more easily and quickly for the same or lesser offenses, isn’t the problem.

None of that is the problem. Nope.  All of that is just too bad. Life is tough all over. Lots of people have got lots of problems. No, instead we’ve heard that the welfare benefits in Baltimore are “too lucrative,” because when you give people nothing they somehow get more, somewhere. That businesses won’t invest in these neighborhoods until something is done about those darn teachers unions. That it’s because of “too many gay marriages.” That ISIS is using Baltimore to recruit blacks. And, of course, when all else fails, blame Obama.

But what we’ve heard the most, is that the real problem is the Breakdown in the Black Family™. That too many black fathers have abandoned their children, allowing them to be raised by the streets like feral cats. They don’t learn morals, and they don’t learn values—so naturally police have to shoot them down like rabid, foaming dogs.  Even when they’re unarmed. Even when they have their backs turned and are simply running away. It’s all just their own fault really.

If only black fathers would spend as much time and energy on their kids as white fathers do. If only…

Well, someone—the Centers for Disease Control—actually went to trouble of checking just how involved in their lives all fathers are, whether or not they are married to the mother of their children or live with them. What they found was that, in reality, black fathers are actually more attentive to their children than other fathers generally are.

Continue reading:  http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/10/1383179/-The-absent-black-father-myth-debunked-by-CDC

After Baltimore: Soul Searching in Another America

Reblogged from The Secular Jurist:

By Richard Eskow

[…]

You won’t see structural violence on the television news, because it isn’t the stuff of headlines. Johan Galtung, the Norwegian sociologist and mathematician who invented the field of conflict resolution, explained why in a 1969 paper:

“Personal violence represents change and dynamism – not only ripples on waves, but waves on otherwise tranquil waters. Structural violence is silent, it does not show – it is essentially static, it is the tranquil waters.”

When he spoke of Baltimore the other day, President Obama predicted that “we’ll go through the same cycles of periodic conflicts between the police and communities and the occasional riots in the streets. And everybody will feign concern until it goes away and then we go about our business as usual.”

He is almost certainly right. But the president did not offer a clear vision for ending the structural failures that have generated this cycle of conflict. That vision is urgently needed. The time for soul searching is now.

The curfew has been lifted in Baltimore. But the poverty remains, and so does the death and injury it brings. The waters are tranquil tonight. But across the many Americas, our common future is hidden in shadows.

http://ourfuture.org/20150504/baltimore-soul-searching-in-another-america

What happens when a bus carrying black students breaks down in the American South?

By Robert A. Vella

Turn back the clock to another time deep in the American South when black people dared not show their faces in places where good ole white folks didn’t want to see them.  The pre-Civil War Antebellum period?  Nope.  The Jim Crow era?  No, again.  How about 2015?

From Daily Kos – Michigan high school students toured Florida colleges, ended up as targets of racism:

Another day in post-racial America. This time in Florida’s panhandle, where a group of Michigan high schools students and administrators were touring Florida colleges. Their bus broke down and the group of 90 students and adults were forced to rent hotel rooms for the night at the Econo Lodge in Live Oak, Florida:

Coordinator Blake Odum says right after dinner, is when the trip took a much different and disturbing tone.

“It was owned by white people. And they started taking pictures of all the kids as we were walking in and out of the hotel,” said student Melissa Blacque.

“I heard one of the ladies, she said, ‘If i see one more of them, I’m calling the law,'” Odum said.

Blacque says the students were peaceful, but felt uncomfortable at the hotel.

“They were calling us the N word and called Blake the N word. We were just like ‘whoa,'” Blacque said.

Fearing for their own safety, they called police:

“The officer pulled me to the side and said, ‘You know, I just want to let you know this area right off the interstate, people aren’t too accommodating to you all.’ And he said, ‘If you know what I mean.’ I said, ‘Black people?’ And he said, ‘Yeah,'” Odum said.

It got even worse:

As they left, that’s when Odum says tensions reached a boiling point, when he says he heard the manager say, “‘We’re going to get these N****rs off our property.’ And I was blown back by that,” Odum said.

Now, let’s travel a few hundred miles to the west.  From Daily Kos – White students at Grapevine High School record white supremacist rap promoting lynching:

Two white female students at Grapevine High School in Grapevine, Texas recorded and released a song with dangerous and offensive lyrics about black, Latino, and Asian-American students. As the anger boils out of control in the school, the staff was forced to send the email below to parents.

The students each wrote apology letters in which they basically say that nothing they said actually reflects how they feel about people.

Those apologies are below as well.

Who said time travel was impossible?

Boycott Indiana over its legalizing discrimination against LGBT persons, including the NCAA Final Four

Make a statement!  Take a stand!  Boycott the state of Indiana over its new law which legalizes discrimination against the LGBT community.  Your boycott should include the NCAA men’s basketball “Final Four” tournament at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on April 4, 2015.  Please don’t watch it, and certainly don’t attend the event.

*

Updated reading:

The Big Lie The Media Tells About Indiana’s New ‘Religious Freedom’ Law

Boycott these 5 common products made in Indiana

Apple CEO Tim Cook criticizes discriminatory “religious freedom” laws

In conservative Indiana, bemusement at boycott threats over “religious freedom” law

American Denial: a profound and revealing sociological study of Racism in America

By Robert A. Vella

Last night, PBS aired an Independent Lens documentary titled American Denial which examined a sociological study of racism in America begun in the 1930s.  It is the most profound and uncomfortably revealing work of journalism I’ve ever seen on the subject of race which I’m rating as MUST SEE for the readers of this blog.

Of particular note is its focus on the abject disparity between the conscious and subconscious attitudes of white Americans towards black people and other ethnic groups.  The documentary also exposes how this psychological phenomenon impacts cultural perceptions, expectations, and biases in America which affect all persons regardless of race and ethnicity.  Examples include doctors who treat people differently even though the patients suffer from the same condition, black children who choose white dolls as more “beautiful” and “good,” political dynamics which label poor blacks as “inferior,” and law enforcement practices which criminalize the very existence of black people in America.

American Denial also confronts racism more directly with segments showing how southern whites reacted to suggestions comparing Jim Crow laws (i.e. segregation) to the Nazi persecution of Jews in Europe, as well as to suggestions asserting that obsessive white fear of black sexuality concealed deeply-held and culturally taboo emotions.

From PBS – Independent Lens – American Denial:

Follow the story of Swedish researcher Gunnar Myrdal whose landmark 1944 study, An American Dilemma, probed deep into the United States’ racial psyche. The film weaves a narrative that exposes some of the potential underlying causes of racial biases still rooted in America’s systems and institutions today.

An intellectual social visionary who later won a Nobel Prize in economics, Myrdal first visited the Jim Crow South at the invitation of the Carnegie Corporation in 1938, where he was “shocked to the core by all the evils [he] saw.” With a team of scholars that included black political scientist Ralph Bunche, Myrdal wrote his massive 1,500-page investigation of race, now considered a classic.

An American Dilemma challenged the veracity of the American creed of equality, justice, and liberty for all. It argued that critically implicit in that creed — which Myrdal called America’s “state religion” — was a more shameful conflict: white Americans explained away the lack of opportunity for blacks by labeling them inferior. Myrdal argued that this view justified practices and policies that openly undermined and oppressed the lives of black citizens. Seventy years later, are we still a society living in this state of denial, in an era marked by the election of the nation’s first black president?

American Denial sheds light on the unconscious political and moral world of modern Americans, using archival footage, newsreels, nightly news reports, and rare southern home movies from the ‘30s and ‘40s, as well as research footage, websites, and YouTube films showing psychological testing of racial attitudes. Exploring “stop-and-frisk” practices, the incarceration crisis, and racially-patterned poverty, the film features a wide array of historians, psychologists, and sociologists who offer expert insight and share their own personal, unsettling stories. The result is a unique and provocative film that challenges our assumptions about who we are and what we really believe.

Watch the documentary here:  http://video.pbs.org/video/2365422025/