nowinexile:

On May 15, 1948, 65 years ago Jewish Zionist militias launched a massive attack on the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine to ethnically cleanse them from their land in order to establish Israel as their Jewish state. This lead more than 750,000 Palestinians to flee their homes and become displaces as refugees in the neighboring countries. Most of the families that fled did not even have time to pack their belonging or anything in fear of being massacred by the vicious Jewish militias who went through villages massacring its inhabitants who refused to leave, most of whom were poor villagers and unarmed farmers. 

“We must do everything to insure they never return. The old will die and the young will forget” David Ben-Gurion – First Prime Minister of Israel, 1949.

We won’t forget. We won’t forgive. And one day, soon, we will return!

2brwngrls:

Oh, goodie! More racist fashion editorials! 

This time, it’s Diva magazine’s photospread entitled “Be My Slave.” Pakistani designer Aamna Aqeel decided, for whatever reason, that the best way to showcase her fashions was via these seriously offensive images, which feature a white model clad in chic duds, accompanied by a little boy playing her “slave.”

When confronted about the photos, Aqeel insisted that the spread’s concept was to bring awareness to child labor, and that the fact that the boy is dark-skinned and dressed in ~*tribal*~ gear was purely coincidental. 

However International Herald Tribune writer Salima Feerasta has quite rightly called bullshit on Aqeel’s flimsly excuse, saying: It’s facetious of the designer to claim that she was trying to stimulate a debate on child labour. The model wearing her clothes is clearly comfortable with her dominant position. She is not made up in a way that shows her to be the villain of the piece. The use of a dark skinned child in a shoot entitled “Be My Slave” certainly reeks of racism, however much the designer may deny it. And if anything, the shoot seems to condone child labour.”

What do you guys think? Will the fashion world ever get a clue?

Check the hellnoracistdrag archive. The blog started when Sharon called a (now former) fan the n word at one of her performances. The autograph where she wrote, “love you n-” is the background for that blog, and most of the earlier posts are about her. There’s also a video on that page of her dressing as a geisha and ordering Chinese delivery because she wanted to make fun of the Asian person she assumed would show up.

Unless some judge or justice intervenes, or Governor Phil Bryant exercises his clemency power, Willie Jerome Manning has about 24 hours to live. A black man convicted of murdering two white university students in Mississippi in 1992, a black man who has maintained his innocence for two decades through a racially charged case in the Deep South, Manning is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection tomorrow at 6 p.m. at the Parchman prison in Sunflower. 

Last week I wrote in depth about this case, focusing on the fact that state officials are refusing to test DNA and fingerprint evidence which could definitively exonerate (or incriminate) Manning.  But now there’s more. In the past four days, the Justice Department has delivered two separate letters to lawyers in the case acknowledging that an FBI “hair” analyst’s “expert” testimony at Manning’s 1994 trial, testimony which helped incriminate the defendant by linking him to hair fibers found at the crime scene, “exceeded the limits of science and was, therefore, invalid.”

Here’s how the feds put it in their second (May 4th) letter:

We have determined that the microscopic hair comparison analysis testimony or laboratory report presented in this case included additional statements that exceeded the limits of science and was, therefore, invalid. In response to inquiries regarding whether the errors identified in the notification letter had any bearing on the examiner’s opinion regarding the racial classification of the hair, the FBI states the following: The scientific analysis of hair evidence permits an examiner to offer an opinion that a questioned hair possesses certain traits that are associated with a particular racial group.

However, since a statistical probability cannot be determined for classification of hair into a particular racial group, it would be error for an examiner to testify that he can determine that the questioned hairs were from an individual of a particular racial group. Thus, an examiner cannot testify with any statement of probability whether the hair is from a particular racial group, but can testify that a hair exhibits traits associated with a particular racial group.

Citing the two Justice Department letters, which you can read for yourself hereand here, Manning’s attorneys early Monday filed another motion with the Mississippi Supreme Court seeking a stay of their client’s execution and other relief, including a reversal of the 1994 convictions. State lawyers must file their response by 4 p.m. today, and I’ll update this piece then, but there is no reason to believe that Mississippi is suddenly going to give up its plan to execute Manning by tomorrow evening.

All the legal posturing aside, what the startling Justice Department letters mean is that Mississippi now is defending a capital conviction in which the scientific evidence prosecutors introduced at trial was demonstrably false and the scientific evidence prosecutors refuse to include in the case — the DNA testing and modern fingerprint analysis — is almost certainly going to prove true. Unless something changes, Willie Manning now has 24 hours left to contemplate the meaning of that perversion of justice.

UPDATE (5:50 pm ET): In response to Manning’s latest motion, Mississippi has filed a short, concise brief (which you can read here) in which the state asserts “that the supposed ‘new’ evidence does not represent new evidence nor do these letters form [sic] the DOJ represent, when read in context, a repudiation of the testimony of” the FBI agent who testified at the trial of this case. In Mississippi’s view, the discrepancy between the FBI witness’ testimony at the 1994 trial and the Justice Department’s position today is a “matter of semantics.” Manning should not be given a stay of execution, state lawyers argue, and his attorneys should not be given a chance to further argue this new issue. A decision is expected either later tonight or early Tuesday.

UPDATE, (Tuesday morning 8:45 am ET): Late last night, the Justice Department sent the lawyers in the case another letter, this one casting doubt upon the ballistics evidence introduced at trial by the FBI. Here is the text of that letter— another blow to Mississippi’s argument that there is enough credible evidence in the case to preclude the need to test the DNA.

He’s still scheduled to be executed in a matter of hours…

sinidentidades:

Coffins on the border wall to commemorate those who lost their lives in the desert trying to cross the border. 

I guess I hit a nerve with silly white boys yesterday.

“%100 of rapes committed against black women are perpetuated by black men, how do you feel about that?” is the most ignorant thing I’ve heard in awhile, so congrats on that.

queen-pharaoh:

the-olivia:

queen-pharaoh:

“His name is Kendrick Kj Johnson he was beaten to death at his High School here in Valdosta Ga the police is covering up his story by saying there was no foul play but clearly you can see its a lie. They have yet to give the Johnson/Tooley family any answers. Im only asking for a minute of your time to plz share his story we need all the support we can get. Please support the Kendrick Kj Johnson movement.”

To everyone following my blog, please share this information! Time has repeated itself and repeated the Emmett Till Case all over again.  The Valdosta Police are trying to say that he climbed on top of  an upright tumbling mat, fell into it upside down and died… He went missing during one of his classes and was found the next day like what you see above. The police would not let the family identify the body upon finding KJ’s body…. Now I don’t know about you but no one would be that bloated and disfigured after 24hrs stuck in a tumbling mat.  

Below you will find a link to a compilation of News articles involving his death and a petition go get the federal government involved in solving his murder.

http://www.wctv.tv/news/headlines/Family-Of-Student-Found-Dead-At-Lowndes-High-School-Speaks-Out-186712851.html

http://www.change.org/petitions/united-states-justice-department-investigate-conduct-in-georgia-s-southern-judicial-district

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-qR13zzdU8

This Family deserves answers, prayers, and Justice! Please Share and get our communities involved!!!

Guys please read this and sign the petition. It’s going on in the city I live in and needs more recognition!!!

(229) 245-5270 this is the Valdosta police dept number how about all of us call and see what’s going on and demand justice! Also he is another article that raises some great questions. http://www.examiner.com/article/lowndes-coroner-admits-he-wasn-t-initially-notified-kendrick-johnson-s-death

youurlove:

Junius Stinney was the youngest person in America to be executed on death row in 1944 at age 14. He was quickly accused by the (white police) of ‘killing’ two little (white girls) with lack of evidence. His conviction and sentencing opened and closed in one day. There were no witnesses called and there was no transcript of the trial details and black people were not allowed inside the courtroom during that time.

[I always repost this because i don’t want anyone to forget about him!]

floricanto-desnuda:

The difference between poetry and rhetoric
is being ready to kill
yourself
instead of your children.

I am trapped on a desert of raw gunshot wounds
and a dead child dragging his shattered black
face off the edge of my sleep
blood from his punctured cheeks and shoulders
is the only liquid for miles
and my stomach
churns at the imagined taste while
my mouth splits into dry lips
without loyalty or reason
thirsting for the wetness of his blood
as it sinks into the whiteness
of the desert where I am lost
without imagery or magic
trying to make power out of hatred and destruction
trying to heal my dying son with kisses
only the sun will bleach his bones quicker.

A policeman who shot down a ten year old in Queens
stood over the boy with his cop shoes in childish blood
and a voice said “Die you little motherfucker” and
there are tapes to prove it. At his trial
this policeman said in his own defense
“I didn’t notice the size nor nothing else
only the color”. And
there are tapes to prove that, too.

Today that 37 year old white man
with 13 years of police forcing
was set free
by eleven white men who said they were satisfied
justice had been done
and one Black Woman who said
“They convinced me” meaning
they had dragged her 4’10” black Woman’s frame
over the hot coals
of four centuries of white male approval
until she let go
the first real power she ever had
and lined her own womb with cement
to make a graveyard for our children.

I have not been able to touch the destruction
within me.
But unless I learn to use
the difference between poetry and rhetoric
my power too will run corrupt as poisonous mold
or lie limp and useless as an unconnected wire
and one day I will take my teenaged plug
and connect it to the nearest socket
raping an 85 year old white woman
who is somebody’s mother
and as I beat her senseless and set a torch to her bed
a greek chorus will be singing in 3/4 time
“Poor thing. She never hurt a soul. What beasts they are.”


Audre Lorde, “Power” from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde.

a self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,” audre lorde (1934-1992) spoke clearly and lived passionately. she disavowed all oppressions, and did not shy from contradictions. lorde penned essays, poetry, and a biomythography. we honor her name, her memory, and the life of her works.

Just heard a radio commercial say the fight against childhood obesity is the most important fight in this nation’s history. My black trans queer ass begs to differ.

My fat wasn’t the reason my headstart teacher picked me up by wrapping her hands around my neck when I was 5; it wasn’t the reason a dentist thought he could hold me down in front of others and pinch my cheek until it bled when I was 9; it wasn’t the justification for trying to hold me back and for placing me in special education classes from Kindergarten until someone finally tested me and placed me in advanced classes in 6th grade, and it sure as hell isn’t the reason cops and nurses pinned me down with their knees on my back and neck while shouting, “this is what you wanted, isn’t it?” after my first suicide attempt at 13.

Y’all know why this shit happened, and my gut had nothing to do with it.