Race Relations in the United States and the Trayvon Martin Murder Case

UPDATE: Violent racists are terrorists and hate crimes are acts of terrorism: "The Sheriff of Franklin County, Tenn., says he and his investigators have learned a lot about hate groups since they began investigating a March killing...what he has learned about the Aryan Nations and similar groups is not anything he really ever wanted to know." http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2013/apr/24/white-supremacists-still-alive-and-well/

POLL RESULTS: "A single event can take on great symbolic importance and change people’s perceptions of reality, especially when the media devote nearly constant attention to that event. The big media story of the killing of Trayvon Martin and the trial of George Zimmerman probably does not change the objective economic, social, and political circumstances of blacks and whites in the U.S. But it changed people’s perceptions of race relations." MSNBC/WSJ Poll- http://www.psmag.com/culture/how-the-zimmermanmartin-case-hurt-race-relations-in-the-united-states-63435/

President Obama's Remarks on the Trayvon Martin Case

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/07/19/remarks-president-trayvon-martin

28 COMMON RACIST ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS THAT INDICATE A DETOUR OR WRONG TURN INTO WHITE GUILT, DENIAL OR DEFENSIVENESS
  https://www.stcloudstate.edu/care/resources.aspx

RACE POWER and POLICY, DISMANTLING STRUCTURAL RACISM
http://racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/race_power_policy_workbook.pdf

Asian-Pacific Heritage Month

About Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month

May is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month – a celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. A rather broad term, Asian-Pacific encompasses all of the Asian continent and the Pacific islands of Melanesia (New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands), Micronesia (Marianas, Guam, Wake Island, Palau, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia) and Polynesia (New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Rotuma, Midway Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Easter Island).
Art above is "Warrior on White Cow"  by Yunnan Sheng (circa 1500?)

Like most commemorative months, Asian-Pacific Heritage Month originated in a congressional bill. In June 1977, Reps. Frank Horton of New York and Norman Y. Mineta of California introduced a House resolution that called upon the president to proclaim the first ten days of May as Asian-Pacific Heritage Week. The following month, senators Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga introduced a similar bill in the Senate. Both were passed. On October 5, 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed a Joint Resolution designating the annual celebration. Twelve years later, President George H.W. Bush signed an extension making the week-long celebration into a month-long celebration. In 1992, the official designation of May as Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month was signed into law.  http://asianpacificheritage.gov/

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley Ceremoniously Signs Scottsboro Boys Pardon at the Museum in Scottsboro

The Scottsboro Defendants with their Attorney Samuel Liebowitz. Alabama National Guard flank the defendants on the left and right. University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Law presentation of the case which changed American Jurisprudence: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scottsboro/scottsb.htm

 

AP-Video: The Scottsboro Boys Pardon, Decades in the Making

 

 

"The governor officially signed Senate Bill 97, legislation that allows for posthumous pardons, on April 11 so it could meet its deadline. The defendants known as the Scottsboro Boys still have to be officially pardoned by the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles. The governor also signed House Joint Resolution 20, a resolution sponsored by Representative John Robinson that formally exonerates the Scottsboro Boys." http://www.theclarion.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6082:governor-bentley-signs-legislation-exonderating-the-scottsboro-boys&catid=42:clarion-rotation-stories&Itemid=142

 

Huntsville Times - Al.com:

"SCOTTSBORO, Alabama - Nine boys lined the center aisle of Joyce Chapel United Methodist Church, each waiting his turn to walk to the alter rail.
One-by-one the black youths moved forward, some shuffling their feet, nervous at the thought of speaking in front of so many people, others stepping confidently to the task at hand.
At the rail, each would light one of nine white candles, then turn to the people crowding the pews and announce in whose memory it was lit." http://blog.al.com/breaking/2013/04/the_black_and_white_of_the_sco.html

"Clarence Norris Jr. was able to fill in some pieces of his childhood this morning when Gov. Robert Bentley signed historic legislation posthumously exonerating the nine young men known as the Scottsboro Boys, one of whom was Norris' father, a man he never knew." http://blog.al.com/breaking/2013/04/post_1132.html

(Fair Use - educational not for profit)"al.com" photo by/Bob Gathnay

Slide Show of event: http://photos.al.com/huntsville-times/2013/04/scottsboro_boys_legislation_1.html

 

Early Scottsboro Boys Museum history photo-video

 

(Photo video by Garry Morgan)

Video of the Pardon Event


(You Tube video by Left in Alabama)

Scottsboro Boys Pardon Likely to be Signed This Week (In Scottsboro?) An Example of "White Guilt" or Republican Grandstanding?

{fair use-Gov Bentley's Face Book photo, cropped)

 

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley is likely to sign Scottsboro Boys Pardon this week in Scottsboro sources report.

Update Apr 13, 2013: Scottsboro's Daily Sentinel reports Gov. Bentley will be in Scottsboro Thursday, Apr. 18 to ceremoniously sign the bill. The local paper also reports Jesse Jackson may also be in town for the signing.

 

"Jeremy King, a spokesman for Alabama Governor Robert Bentley, said he expects the bill to be signed this week allowing the posthumous pardons, reversing convictions that became a symbol of racial injustice in a case that led to the end of black exclusion from juries in the South." http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-08/alabama-pardons-scottsboro-boys-82-years-after-injustice.html

 

(photo, fair use - http://wowcatherine.tumblr.com/image/44615443692 )

 Director of the Scottsboro Boys Museum, Sheila Washington, announces introduction to the Scottsboro Boys Act at the Alabama Statehouse. Catherine Schreiber Productions blog: http://wowcatherine.tumblr.com/page/2  

 

Dr. Shelby Steele describes "white guilt": "Steele believes that the use of victimization is the greatest hindrance for black Americans. In his view, white Americans see blacks as victims to ease their guilty conscience, while blacks attempt to turn their status as victims into a kind of currency that will purchase nothing of real or lasting value. Therefore, he claims, blacks must stop "buying into this zero-sum game" by adopting a "culture of excellence and achievement" without relying on "set-asides and entitlements.^{" "} Steele, Shelby (2006-05-02). White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era. Harper Collins.  http://www.law.uc.edu/sites/default/files/fcj1.1.steele%20reviewed%20by%20ryan.pdf

About Dr. Steele, from Stanford University: http://www.hoover.org/fellows/10347

 

The question remains, what will the pardon act accomplish; does it create a race relations education program in the state; does it provide adequate criminal indigent defense funding? The answer is no.

http://arklite.blogspot.com/2012/12/watch-for-snakes-particularly-in-our.html

 

Alabama Republicans claim they know what is best for women: http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/02/07/1552611/alabama-trap-laws/?mobile=nc

 

Will Alabama Republicans continue their efforts to destroy the Voting Rights Act and Public Education, the great equalizer, in Alabama?

Civil Rights Attorneys file suit to protect Voting Rights: http://www.lawyerscommittee.org/projects/voting_rights/page?id=0073