"In North America, the Black immigrant is used to downgrade the North-American-born Black population; in Europe, the North American Black is used to downgrade the Black European and African and Caribbean permanent residents there. Each instance allows the dominating populations to conceal their racism by appealing to a worse racism elsewhere and by castigating the resident population for failing to excel under the status quo. How often have I heard American Blacks speak of how wonderfully they were treated in Europe! My experience--perhaps from looking too African in Brussels or too Black in Prague--is that European Whites are not particularly different than U.S. Whites when they think the Black is one of their "own," which ironically includes the type of immigrants they are used to."

--Lewis Gordon

(via The Black Feminist Manifesto)

#4moreyears

Reblogged from Serenity in Perspective

As the numbers first started coming in on Tuesday night, I'll admit that I was scared. I groaned every time a state in the South was called for Romney, trying to placate myself with constant reminders that they'd already called Texas and we were still waiting for California/The West Coast as a solid entity. I pulled at my hair and curled up on the couch, unwillingly envisioning life under the Romney-Ryan regime. I was afraid that we'd lost America again, that robber barons had somehow become vintage and cool again. 

As the night wore on, my tension dissolved into laughter, laughter and joy as Obama-Biden proceeded to take every single battleground state. Laughter and joy as we re-won the White House by over a hundred electoral college points (side-eye at Florida taking 48 hours to come in). Laughter and joy because y'all had me shook, America. It still really worries me that 58.6 million of you thought that Romney was better suited than Barack Obama to take care of this country, but that's not something we need to worry about right now. (#rememberwhenMittRomneywasrelevant?) 

Reblogged from Tudo Bom(b)

As the night wore into the next day, my laughter and joy swelled into pride. I am so proud of us, America. It was one thing to fall in love with rhetoric of hope and change and a face the color of which seemed to usher in a new era of American leadership in 2008. Obama's 2008 campaign tugged at your heartstrings, I know. We were history in the making. Voting for Obama in 2008 was easy. Voting for Obama in 2012 was a little bit harder for a lot of us, I know. It is another thing entirely to re-elect a president whose rhetoric of hope and change rang a little more hollow than many of us would like, even if the circumstances surrounding that hollowness were out of his (or anyone's) control. It is another thing entirely to say we're not totally pleased with the way the last four years have gone, but we know that our best chance of success lies in you. It is easy to fall in love. It's hard to stay. 

I'm proud of America for giving Barack Obama four more years to carry out his dreams. I am proud of Maine, Maryland, and Washington for voting to allow same-sex marriages in their states (although I fundamentally disbelieve in the validity of the majority voting for the rights of the minority because civil rights should not be left up to public opinion), and I am proud of Minnesota for refusing to ban same-sex marriage. I am proud of New Hampshire for electing our nation's first all-female delegation. I am proud of the country as a whole for electing the most women to ever serve in the Senate, and I am proud of Wisconsin for openly lesbian senator-elect Tammy Baldwin, of Hawaii for Asian female senator-elect Mazie Hirono and for Hindu-American combat veteran representative-elect Tulsi Gabbard, and of Illinois for disabled veteran female representative-elect Tammy Duckworth. I am proud of LA for Jackie Lacey, the county's first Black District Attorney. I am proud that Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin, Richard “Rape Is Something That God Intended To Happen” Mourdock, Allen “We Are Not Going To Have Our Men Become Subservient” West, Joe “Abortion Is Never Necessary to Save the Mother’s Life” Walsh, Roger "Some Girls, They Rape So Easy" Rivard, Tom "Having a Baby Out of Wedlock is Similar to Rape" Smith, and John "On the Rape Thing...How Does More Violence Onto A Woman's Body [i.e. Abortion] Make It Better?" Koster were all soundly defeated. I am proud that it seems that America stepped up and realized that women matter and healthcare matters and equal opportunity matters and the ACTUAL middle class (i.e. not people who make $249,999 a year) matters. I'm proud that America remembered who and what it is made of. 

But don't get it twisted--don't mistake my elation for satisfaction. We still have a helluva lot of work to do before this country lives up to the words and ideas it was founded upon. This post is just to thank all of you for keeping us moving in the right direction. 

"There ain't no justice, there's just us..."

the above lyric is a line from the chorus of The City High Anthem, and though they're singing with regard to a particular generation of underprivileged Black urban youth, I think people worldwide, and particularly Black peoples in the United States, find these words resonate with even more intensity in them tonight. 

Let me preface this by saying that I try, whenever possible, to be a proud American. I've had inter/transnational roommates chide me for being patriotic to a fault. Though this is no longer the case, I once regarded myself as "American" before "Black". Under normal circumstances, I will refuse to say "under God," but otherwise will pledge my allegiance to our flag and feel only positivity swell in my heart. Tonight, though, I will avert my eyes from wherever I might see this flag on my cross-campus walk. Tonight, I wear my American identity with shame, for I have been reminded that we do not always practice what we preach. I have been reminded of hypocrisy. I have been reminded of dishonor. I have been reminded of the harshest forms of prejudice. I have been reminded of systemic racism. I have been reminded of ideals that are only upheld for those deemed "ideal."

At 11:08 pm, an event transpired in the state of Georgia that can be properly referred to solely as a legalized lynching. 

Before I was born, Troy Davis, a 20 year old Black man, was found guilty of the murder of an off-duty White police officer, despite the fact that no physical evidence could be found linking him to the crime. The murder weapon was never located. At the time of his trial, nine witnesses swore before God, a judge, a jury, and a nation to various details cementing Davis's guilt. He was convicted and sentenced to death. 

In the 22 years since, seven of those nine witnesses have either fully or partially recanted their testimonies, saying they felt pressured by the police to implicate Davis. The gun has still never been recovered. Rumors have been circulating for years that one of the witnesses in Davis's trial, Sylvester "Redd" Coles, actually committed the murder, but no formal investigation has ever been launched against Coles. Each time Davis has filed for an appeal, he has been denied, with the courts citing a lack of "substantive claims" of his innocence, and dismissing the recants as "unpersuasive." 

From Wikipedia:

In August 17, 2009, the Supreme Court of the United States, over the dissenting votes of two justices, ordered a federal district court in Georgia to consider whether new evidence "that could not have been obtained at the time of trial clearly establishes [Davis'] innocence". The evidentiary hearing was held in June 2010, during which affidavits from several prosecution witnesses from the trial changing or recanting their previous testimony were presented; some affiants asserted they had been coerced by police. The State presented witnesses, including the police investigators and original prosecutors, denying any coercion. Other witnesses who had not testified at trial asserted that Coles had confessed to the killing, but this evidence was excluded as hearsay as Coles was not subpoenaed by the defense to rebut it. In an August 2010 decision, the conviction was upheld by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, which described defense efforts to upset the conviction as "largely smoke and mirrors".

 At this time, I would like to examine the legal definition of the phrase "reasonable doubt," as coined in the Fourteenth Amendment to our United States Constitution:

"The standard that must be met by the prosecution's evidence in a criminal prosecution: that no other logical explanation can be derived from the facts except that the defendant committed the crime, thereby overcoming the presumption that a person is innocent until proven guilty."

Please note that that says innocent until proven guilty, not guilty until proven innocent. The prosecution's case against Troy Davis was grounded entirely on circumstantial evidence, coerced and recanted witness testimony, and a dismissal of sworn witness testimony that SOMEONE ELSE HAD CONFESSED TO THE CRIME. How does any of that leave us within the boundaries of reasonable doubt? 

A hundred years ago (and more recently), in the state of Georgia (and elsewhere), when a Black man was accused of committing an offense against a White, his Constitutional right to a fair trial by a jury of his peers was conveniently overlooked. He saw no jury, no judge, no courthouse. If he were lucky, he saw torches, heard the mob coming. If he were lucky, he could get away. Thousands of Black men, women, and children were not lucky. They were not tried. Declared guilty by default, as a fact of the color of their skin and the nature that presumably accompanied it, they were kidnapped, tortured, hanged, riddled with bullets, burned [though not necessarily in that order]. Their images were printed on front pages and postcards, their body parts were auctioned off to the highest bidders, community members who wanted a souvenir.

Though they have varied their methods with time--substituting a fixed trial with incapable public defenders and coerced witnesses for the previously non-existent trial, the emotional torture of caging a boy for the entirety of his manhood for kidnapping and physical torture, and a lethal injection for the satisfaction of hearing a neck snap--you cannot tell me they do not still lynch Black men in the state of Georgia. The only difference is the entire process is entirely legal, rather than extralegal now. You cannot tell me Troy Davis's rights were upheld. You cannot call this justice. I see only predeterminism and vengeance, and when these things are idolized in the place of justice, America has failed itself. These cannot be equated. I am neither comfortable in my own skin or with my own patriotism in the face of a system that does not know the difference, with checks and balances that are meant to help allowing states to get away with murder.

I am not a religious woman, but with everything in me, I hope that Troy Davis finally knows freedom. I also hope that we remember that the irony of the "I am Troy Davis" campaign launched this week to protest his impending execution is that there many Troy Davises spread around the country (Mumia Abu-Jamal, anyone?), probably thousands around the world. Even in cases where guilt is unequivocal, is retribution ever truly just? My friend Brittney's family did not call for it, even when the grief and rage seemed overwhelming. I will admit that there are some crimes so heinous that my first reaction is you, offender, do not need to live any longer. This is primarily reserved for people who rape and murder 27 women and make suits out of their skin, etc. But taking a life should never make one sleep easier at night. Inflicting more of the seemingly unbearable and insurmountable pain one person's loved ones had to go through when they were taken onto another person's loved ones...why is this something to pay forward?

I will never get a Twitter because this rant is almost 1400 words long and that's the way I like it, but so that I may stand in solidarity, I would re-tweet this all night:

#toomuchdoubt