NewsTrust - Racism - Most Recent Stories

How Conservative Elites Stoke Racist Anxieties to Gain Power and Split Blacks and Whites

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Chauncey DeVega - Feb. 10 (News Analysis) - Newt Gingrich calling Obama a “food stamp president,” Rick Santorum implying that African Americans are parasites who leach off of white people, and Ron Paul’s old newsletters, which describe black men as monstrous beasts (“giant negroes” who stand ready to attack whites at any moment), are examples of this phenomenon on the national stage.

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Raj Patel: In Attacks on Obama, Food Stamps, Newt Gingrich is “Racially Coding Poverty”

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jan. 23 (News Analysis) - what is really needed is a conversation about poverty and why the need for food stamps is so high. "It’s true that disproportionately people of color are affected by food insecurity. But what Gingrich is doing, of course, is racially coding poverty by calling President Obama 'the food stamp president,'" Patel said. "He’s invoking these ideas of racialized poverty. Of course, if you look at the people who are on the food stamp program, you see that the majority of them are white and poor." Patel is author of the popular book, "Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System."

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Ahead of South Carolina Primary, GOP Candidates Employ Race-Baiting Tradition to Win Southern Vote

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Jan. 20 (News Analysis) - Leading up to the South Carolina primary, several Republican presidential candidates have been criticized for comments made over issues of race. This week Newt Gingrich defended his description of President Obama as "the food stamp president," while offering praise for President Andrew Jackson, the architect of the Indian Removal Act. We speak to South Carolina civil rights activist Kevin Alexander Gray and longtime political reporter Wayne Slater about how Republicans have adopted the long-held "Southern strategy" of race baiting in order to win over bigoted white voters. "Democrats come here to get their black ticket punched. Republicans come here to punch black people," Gray says. [includes rush transcript]

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Voter Photo ID Laws Hit Older Americans Hard

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

AARP Bulletin - By Marsha Mercer - Jan. 05 (News Analysis) - Having a driver's license or photo identification card is commonplace for most Americans, but about 11 percent of adult citizens — more than 21 million people — lack a valid, government-issued photo ID, according to a study by the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law.

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Ariz. Sheriff Joe Arpaio: Mounting Storm of Anti-Latino Bias, Prisoner Abuse, Sex-Crimes Negligence

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Juan Gonzalez - Dec. 22 (News Report) - The controversy around Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio is growing by the day. In a scathing report, the Justice Department has accused Arpaio of "wide-ranging discrimination against Latinos," leading federal authorities to suspend Arpaio’s access to programs under which undocumented immigrants are handed over from his jail for deportation. "The federal government was using Arpaio as sort of a showcase, a model for its 287(g) program, in allowing local law enforcement to enforce federal immigration laws... But it failed miserably," says Stephen Lemons, a reporter for the Phoenix New Times. Arpaio has faced growing calls to resign amidst mounting evidence that his police department failed to properly investigate more than 400 sex crime and homicide cases.

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Steven Seagal, ‘America’s Sheriff’ Sued Over Tank Raid, Puppy Death

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Gawker - Dec. 16 (News Report) - Arizona, which we are still not convinced isn't a hoax, is the home of not one but two of our nation's finest lawmen: Squat fascist Sheriff Joe Arpaio and sex slaver Steven Seagal, who is starring in a reality TV show where he... is a policeman, sort of. Well! Now they are both getting sued for killing a puppy.

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Wave of Restrictive Voting Laws Prompts Federal Probes, Grassroots Activism Ahead of 2012 Elections

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Dec. 15 (News Analysis) - "When people move on their fears, they make bad law," says NAACP CEO Ben Jealous, co-author of a new report that argues the new laws amount to a coordinated and comprehensive assault on minorities’ voting rights at a time when their numbers in the population and at the ballot box have increased. Students, former felons and elderly voters may also be impacted. On Saturday, the NAACP helped organize a voting rights march in New York, starting at the offices of Koch Industries in order to highlight how billionaire conservative financiers David and Charles Koch have financed the push for voter ID laws.

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SWAT team's shooting of Marine causes outrage

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Amanda Lee Myers - Nov. 27 (News Report) - Jose Guerena Ortiz was sleeping after an exhausting 12-hour night shift at a copper mine. His wife, Vanessa, had begun breakfast. Their 4-year-old son, Joel, asked to watch cartoons.

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Court bars Muslim group access to FBI operating guidelines

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

rcfp.org - By J.C. Derrick - Nov. 16 (News Report) - He ordered the agency to provide further explanation to allow the court to "undertake a meaningful assessment of the redacted material."

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“Deadly Monopolies”: Medical Ethicist Harriet Washington on How Firms Are Taking Over Life Itself

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Harriet Washington - Oct. 31 (Interview) - One of the major themes raised by the Occupy movement is the increasing power of large corporations over more and more aspects of our lives. We spend the hour looking into the issue of the corporate control of life itself. Our guest, Harriet Washington, is a medical ethicist and has just published a book that examines the extent to which what she calls the medical-industrial complex has come to control human life. In the past 30 years, more than 40,000 patents have been granted on genes alone — many more patents are pending. Washington argues that the biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies patenting these genes are more concerned with profit than with the health or medical needs of patients. Her new book is called, “Deadly Monopolies: The Shocking Corporate Takeover of Life Itself — And the Consequences for Your Health and Our Medical Future." [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Noam Chomsky on Israel-Palestine Prisoner Exchange, U.S. Assassination Campaign in Yemen

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Noam Chomsky - Oct. 18 (Speech) - MIT Professor Emeritus Noam Chomsky, the world-renowned linguist and political dissident, spoke Monday night at Barnard College in New York City about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, just hours before Israel and Hamas completed a historic prisoner exchange. "I think [Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit] should have been released a long time ago. But there’s something missing from this whole story. There’s no pictures of Palestinian women, and no discussion, in fact, in the story of—what about the Palestinian prisoners being released?

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Herman Cain, a man at odds with the skin he's in

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - By Leonard Pitts Jr. - Oct. 15 (Opinion) - Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain neatly encapsulates an article of faith for many white conservatives — namely, that they, not black and brown people, are the true victims of bigotry. Cain comes across as a man profoundly at odds with the skin he's in.

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Alleged Inhumane Conditions for Post-9/11 Suspects Sparks Global Scrutiny of U.S. Detention Policies

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Oct. 14 (News Analysis) - Mehanna is accused of trying to serve in al-Qaeda’s "media wing." He was 27 years old when he was arrested in October 2009 and has been held in solitary confinement since then. Mehanna was originally courted by the FBI to become an informant. Meanwhile, the European Court of Human Rights is hearing a case on the legality of extradition of terror suspects to the United States on the grounds that inmates are subjected to inhumane conditions of confinement and routine violations of due process. This could become a landmark case in human rights law, potentially damaging the international reputation of the U.S. legal system.

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Olbermann Loses It At GOP Rep.

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Keith Olbermann - Oct. 13 (Opinion) - Keith Olbermann was especially feisty during his "Worst Persons" segment on his Wednesday show, going hard after Bill O'Reilly and even swearing on air. Olbermann...

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Fox News Allows Hate Group to Participate in GOP Debate

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - Sep. 23 (News Report) - Almost 20,000 questions were submitted for Thursday night’s Republican presidential debate, but Fox News picked the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), a designated hate group, to ask the first question on immigration.

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The Execution of Troy Davis Provides Another ‘Haunting Reminder of Once Prevalent Southern Lynchings’

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

nationofchange.org - By John Nichols - Sep. 23 (News Analysis) - The American Civil Liberties Union notes that "systemic racial bias in the application of the death penalty exists at both the state and federal level," and it notes historic patterns of discrimination in particular states such as Georgia—highlighting the classic work of University of Iowa law professor David Baldus, who found that during the 1980s prosecutors in Georgia sought the death penalty for 70 percent of African-American defendants with white victims, but for only 15 percent of white defendants with black victims. (Troy Davis' case traces back to an incident in 1989.) The patterns of discrimination, noted Justice Stevens, “provides a haunting reminder of once prevalent Southern lynchings.”

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9 Policies Conservatives Were For Long Before They Were Against Them

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Joshua Holland - Sep. 22 (News Analysis) - Journalist Steve Benen noted that while "the record here may be inconvenient for the right ... it's also unambiguous: the mandate Republicans currently hate was their idea." It was championed by the Heritage Foundation ... Nixon embraced it in the 1970s, and George H.W. Bush kept it going in the 1980s. For years, it was touted by the likes of John McCain, Mitt Romney, Scott Brown, Chuck Grassley, Bob Bennett, Tommy Thompson, Lamar Alexander, Lindsey Graham, John Thune, Judd Gregg, and many other ... notable GOP officials.

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How Washington Creates Global Instability

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Tomdispatch.com - By Nick Turse - Sep. 19 (News Analysis) - It’s a story that should take your breath away: the destabilization of what, in the Bush years, used to be called “the arc of instability.” It involves at least 97 countries, across the bulk of the global south, much of it coinciding with the oil heartlands of the planet. A startling number of these nations are now in turmoil, and in every single one of them -- from Afghanistan and Algeria to Yemen and Zambia -- Washington is militarily involved, overtly or covertly, in outright war or what passes for peace.

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Scott Walker and the GOP Reveal Depth of Their Voter-Exclusion Plan

Sat, 17 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - Sep. 17 (News Report) - A new Department of Transportation memo reveals Wisconsin Republicans intend to make the newly imposed voter ID process as onerous as possible for people seeking IDs.

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U.S. Census Reports Reveals One in Six Americans Are Poor, One in Five Children Live in Poverty

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Sep. 14 (News Report) - A new U.S. Census Bureau report reveals the number of people living in poverty last year surged to 46.2 million — 1 in 6 Americans, the highest number since the Bureau began tracking such data more than 50 years ago. According to the report, blacks and Hispanics together accounted for 54 percent of the poor with whites at 9.9 percent and Asians at 12.1 percent. Children under 18 suffered the highest poverty rate. Meanwhile, the number of Americans with employer-provided health insurance has also continued to decline and now hovers just below the 50 million mark, the most in more than two decades. Analysts say the numbers would have been worse if not for government assistance programs, including extended unemployment compensation, stimulus spending, Obama's health reforms, and social security. We speak with Heidi Shierholz, labor economist at the Economic Policy Institute. [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]

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Morris Dees never stops hunting for hate

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Seattle Times - By Jerry Large - Sep. 12 (News Report) - Morris Dees was in Seattle last week to talk about the work he leads at the Southern Poverty Law Center, the civil-rights law firm he founded in 1971. The struggle has gotten more complex, but the mission is the same: Find and stamp out hate.

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“Fear, Inc.” Exposes the So-Called Experts and Donors Behind Islamaphobia in the United States

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Sep. 06 (Special Report) - A new report by the Center for American Progress called "Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America" shows how a small group of self-proclaimed experts backed by a host of donors are spreading fear and hostility toward Muslims in the United States. According to the report, these so-called experts peddle Islamophobia in the form of books, reports, websites, blogs and carefully crafted anti-Islam talking points. It also notes that right-wing Norwegian murderer Anders Breivik repeatedly cited these "experts" in his so-called "Manifesto." Among those the report highlights is Robert Spencer, author of a blog called "Jihad Watch" and leader of the group Stop Islamization of America,

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Robert Greenwald and Thom Hartmann Discuss “Koch Brothers Exposed”

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

kochbrothersexposed.com - By Thom Hartmann, Robert Greenwald - Aug. 31 (Interview) - Brave New Foundation’s latest “Koch Brothers Exposed” investigation unveils the Kochs’ attempt to re-segregate public schools in North Carolina. (Video)

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Undocumented Student Fanny Martinez Arrested Protesting Controversial Secure Communities Program

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman; Juan Gonzalez - Aug. 18 (News Report) - Last night in Chicago, the controversy over the immigration enforcement program called Secure Communities reached a dramatic standoff when six undocumented students were arrested protesting a meeting to discuss the program. Wearing T-shirts that said "Undocumented and Unafraid," the students joined about 300 people in walking out of the meeting. Once outside, they blocked an expressway on-ramp in an act of civil disobedience. Protests against Secure Communities were also held earlier this week in Houston, Boston, Miami, Atlanta and Charlotte. We go to Chicago to speak with Fanny Martinez, a 23-year-old graduate student in Chicago, one of those arrested at the meeting. She was released from jail shortly before we went to broadcast. [includes rush transcript]

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Hate crimes are a national problem

Thu, 18 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

CNN - By J. Richard Cohen - Aug. 18 (Opinion) - The security camera footage broadcast by CNN shows a grisly scene: a black man in Jackson, Mississippi, being fatally run over by a pickup truck after he was viciously beaten in a motel parking lot on a Sunday morning in June. Prosecutors say a group of white teens chose the man at random. They say the alleged ringleader, an 18-year-old now charged with murder, laughed about it afterward and boasted in a phone conversation about how he "ran that n----- over."

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