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Blacks, Latinos, and the precariousness of “middle class”
Today I listened to a segment on Democracy Now! about a new report that’s out from Demos and Brandeis University on the state of the Black and Latino middle class in the United States. The study, entitled “Economic (In)Security: The Experience of the African American and Latino Middle Classes,†finds that three-out-of-four Black and four-out-of-five…
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In short: Women suck, Batman rulez.
Reports are out that Christian Bale, star of the new hit Batman movie, has been arrested in London for the alleged assault of his mother and sister. I will admit that when I saw these reports this morning, I had that brief moment of disbelief – “Him? Could he really do that?” – that is…
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After 20 years’ fight, expanded domestic violence law in NY state
Twenty years ago, Assemblywoman Helene E. Weinstein of Brooklyn introduced legislation that would expand protections for victims of domestic and intimate partner violence in New York state. After reintroducing similar legislation every year since, the Fair Access bill has finally passed in the state legislature and will soon be signed into law by Governor David…
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Update: Police continue to harrass and terrorize members of Rebel Diaz
G1 of Rebel Diaz, one of the two people beaten and arrested last week for observing the police, reports that his apartment was raided by the NYPD in the wee hours yesterday morning. From rebeldiaz.com by way of illvox: The uniformed police officers did not knock, nor announce themselves, nor verbally identify themselves before or…
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Trans Day of Action – Friday, June 27, NYC
When: Friday, June 27, 2008 – 3:00pm Where: Starting rally at City Hall Park, Manhattan, NY Tomorrow is the fourth annual Trans Day of Action for Social and Economic Justice, organized by the TransJustice working group of the Audre Lorde Project. It’s the fourth year that I’ll be going and every year has been exciting,…
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Hip hop activists attacked and arrested for daring to hold the NYPD accountable
Sometimes there’s too much to blog and far too little time. I’ve been wanting to blog about this since I heard about it last week, but Vivir Latino and illvox and Racewire and a bunch of other folks have gotten to it already so I’ll refer to them. From VivirLatino: Last Thursday, independent, radical, revolutionary,…
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Rinku Sen on Same-Sex Marriage and Communities of Color
Qualms about the marriage equality movement aside, I appreciated this perspective from Rinku Sen at Racewire. Rather than fixating on communities of color as though we’re the last of the homophobic holdouts, we should be thinking of ways to bring people together, socially and culturally, across sexual lines. Very true. And yeah, qualms aside again,…
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Convictions overturned for 2 of the Newark 4
Two of the four young Black lesbians who were convicted after defending themselves from a homophobic attack in 2007 have had their convictions overturned. From the New York Times article: An appeals court on Thursday overturned the convictions of two women accused in the beating and stabbing of a man who they said made unwanted…
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Latina teacher fired for not regurgitating the same old crap
cross-posted at Feministe Yesterday while listening to Democracy Now! I heard about Karen Salazar for the first time. She is a high school teacher who was fired from her position at a school in LA because her curriculum was too “Afrocentric” – instead of, you know, the usual Eurocentric curriculum that’s delivered to American students…
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Thanks, Tila!
A little levity for you: while the debate about whether marriage equality is something to unequivocally celebrate continues, at least one thing has been cleared up. We now know who to thank for the victory in California! And no, it’s not LGBT organizations and activists who have worked tirelessly towards this goal; that would make…