Trayvon Martin and racism in America (7/23/13)
Speaking out about race in America is dangerous: perilous for political careers, fracturing for friendships, inviting violence from extremists.
I have felt barely safe writing about racism in America. While being a white man married to an African-American comes with its own dangers, it's safe for people to assume I am not racist. While raised in a predominantly white, middle class town, I've experienced racism against African-Americans through the eyes of my wife and daughters. I've seen it when my loved ones react to racist incidents with a toxic brew of anger, isolation, disgust and despair.
The Trayvon Martin killing in Florida is the latest national reminder that racism is an enduring legacy of the American experience. Sadly, the widespread collective distress over George Zimmerman's acquittal in Trayvon's killing shows more time will have to pass before Americans reach the Promised Land that Martin Luther King Jr. envisioned 45 years ago.
Eliciting howls of protest from his political adversaries, President Obama recently said African-Americans look at Trayvon's killing and the Zimmerman verdict "through a set of experiences and history that doesn't go away." That's polite.
In my unique position as a journalist and spouse of an African-American, I can afford to be less polite.
- Trayvon Martin was racially profiled and his killing was a crime. If the roles were reversed, if Trayvon was a black adult who was stalking a Hispanic teenager while armed with a gun after the police had told him to stop, the vast majority of Americans know the Florida verdict would have been far different.
- Paula Dean is a racist. There's a reason why "nigger" is considered so vile that it gets "X-word" treatment in most public discourse, and its use can rarely be justified. Since the founding of the United States, this word has symbolized and reinforced the attempt to inflict subhuman status on African-Americans and to cast them as unworthy of equal citizenship. My wife has been called a nigger several times; in every instance, the speaker was attempting to dehumanize, denigrate, and strike the hideous historical chords of enslavement and discrimination. Imagine your race of Americans enduring 400 years of injustice, racially motivated slaughter, and political and economic disenfranchisement. Now imagine if there was one word that could make those centuries of torment pass before your eyes in an instant.
- Slavery and the ethnic animosity that sustains it have enduring influences on any society. The United States is one of the great beauties in the history of human civilization, but Americans are finding out how long it takes for a nation to heal the ugly wounds created when an entire race of people are enslaved.
Aryan Brotherhood of Texas flexing muscle (4/6/13)
The Aryan Brotherhood of Texas' efforts to intimidate law enforcement authorities in the Lone Star State have apparently borne fruit, with a federal prosecutor withdrawing from a case involving 34 defendants linked to the violent white supremacist group.
One of the defense attorneys in the case who knows Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Hileman personally said the federal prosecutor probably dropped out of the case because he feared for his life following the murders of two other prosecutors who had worked on the ABT investigation and indictments. The group has threatened to inflict "mass casualties" on law enforcement officials who have worked on the case, according to ABC News.
An Anti-Defamation League report calls the ABT "one of the largest and most violent white supremacist prison gangs in the United States." The report's findings include the following:
- The ABT formed in the 1980s after the desegregation of the Texas prison system, which had the unintended consequence of spawning white, black and hispanic gangs throughout Lone Star State corrections facilities. ABT members were linked to 13 murders at Texas prisons in 1984 and 1985.
- The ABT's constitution states the group was "founded upon the sublime principles of White Supremacy" but organized crime activity is the primary focus of ABT members once they get out of prison.
- The total number of active ABT members is estimated at about 2,000 men and hundreds of female associates, which is a relatively high number for U.S. extremist groups. The ABT is concentrated in Texas but also has a presence in all neighboring states.
- ABT membership is considered "for life," and "prospects" who wish to join the group must be sponsored by a member and complete an apprenticeship that can last for more than a year.
- The group is organized with a paramilitary structure that includes sergeants, lieutenants, captain and generals. Several alleged generals are among the 34 defendants facing charges in the federal case being prosecuted in Texas.
- ABT criminal activity in prison and on the streets falls into three categories: organized crime, gang crime and hate crime. Methamphetamine trafficking is a mainstay for the group, which also engages in an range of other criminal activity from extortion rackets, to home invasions, to murder.
- ABT members have been convicted of 30 murders outside of prison since 2000. In nearly half of those killings, the victims were ABT members who had violated the group's rules.
- In the most deadly hate crimes committed by an ABT member, Mark Stroman was sentenced to death for a series of shootings in the weeks following the 9/11 attacks on New York City and the Pentagon. Stroman targeted convenience store clerks in the Dallas area who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent. He was convicted of killing two of store clerks and gravely injuring a third.
Violent racists probed in murder of Texas lawmen (4/2/13)
Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were shot to death March 30 at their home in Forney, Texas. The Aryan Brotherhood of Texas is a prime target of the investigation into the killings. /Image via theblaze.com
It's unclear whether the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas is responsible for the recent murders of two Lone Star State prosecutors, but the prison-based gang is clearly among the most dangerous racist organizations in the country.
Law enforcement authorities suspect the ABT is behind the Jan. 31 assassination of Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse and last week's murder of his boss, Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland. Two masked gunmen reportedly shot and killed Hasse as he got out of his car outside of the county courthouse, then grabbed their shell casings before leaving the scene. McLelland and his wife were killed over the weekend. CNN reported that McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were shot multiple times in their home and investigators recovered several shell casings from a .223-caliber rifle.
McLelland's office was involved in an investigation that resulted in the indictment last year of 34 suspected ABT members. The group has been linked to multiple cases of extortion, assault and murder.
Racism among 'open secrets' in U.S. medicine (2/24/13)
/Image via www.rodp.org
When I blogged a week ago about a nurse's racial discrimination lawsuit against Hurley Medical Center in Michigan, my focus was on the outrageous behavior of a racist man and the hospital's enabling of that behavior.
This story is much bigger than one case. Patients, and family members of patients, picking and choosing caregivers based on race is a systemic problem in America.
Two of my closest family members have worked as caregivers in nursing homes. Both have been pressured to stay away from a patient because the patient or family members objected to having a person of color involved in caregiving.
As part of its coverage of the Hurley Medical Center discrimination lawsuit, The Associated Press reported Friday that racial discrimination against caregivers is one of U.S. medicine's "open secrets." The AP reported the following:
- The American Medical Association's ethics code bars doctors from refusing to treat people based on race, gender and other criteria, but there are no specific policies for handling race-based requests from patients.
- In 2010, a 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision held that the federal Civil Rights Act prohibits nursing homes from making staffing decisions for nursing assistants based on residents' racial preferences. The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed by a black nursing assistant who sued her employer for racial discrimination.
- In a federal lawsuit filed in 2005, three black employees of a hospital near Philadelphia claimed they were prevented from treating a pregnant white woman by her male partner, who was a member of a white supremacist group. The man used a racial slur when forbidding any care by any African-Americans. The complaint alleged supervisors honored the man's request. The case was settled confidentially before going to trial.
- A 2007 study examined how physicians respond to patients' requests to be assigned caregivers of the same gender, race or religion. The survey of emergency physicians found patients often make such requests, and they are routinely accommodated.
This form of discrimination shows how far America remains from anything approaching racial harmony.
Nurses and other medical caregivers not only help our loved ones at their greatest times of need but also provide difficult and unpleasant services even family members are reluctant to do. They literally wipe our loved ones' asses.
Racism remains so ingrained in American society that caregivers are turned away from suffering patients based on skin color. It's undeniable proof that racism is a persistent problem in U.S. culture.
Lord Monckton: Right-wing extremist poster boy (2/17/13)
What do global warming deniers, Obama birthers and Australian racists all have in common? Lord Christopher Monckton, third viscount of Brenchley.
This week, Monckton became the most prominent supporter of Rise Up Australia, a new national political party Down Under devoted to opposing Muslim immigration in Australia and rolling back the country's multicultural policies. At an event launching Rise Up Australia, Monckton said, "It is not for me as a Brit to endorse any Australian political party, ... but I'm going to anyway."
In December 2012, the ex-journalist and adviser to former U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was thrown out of the United Nations-sponsored climate change conference in Doha, Qatar, after he impersonated a member of the Burmese delegation. Drawing heckling from the other delegates, Monckton told the assembly: "In the 16 years we have been coming to these conferences, there has been no global warming at all. If we were to take action, the cost of that would be many times greater than the cost of taking adaptation measures later. So my recommendation is that we should initiate a review of the science to make sure we are all on the right track."
The viscount of Brenchley was not only expelled from the Doha conference but also banned for life from attending future U.N. climate change talks.
And here's what Monckton had to say in March 2012 about the authenticity of Barack Obama's birth certificate posted on the White House website: "It appears in layers on the screen in such a way you can remove quite separately each of the individual dates. You use Adobe Illustrator and each of the individual dates is in its own separate layer. This thing has been fabricated. Sheriff (Joe) Arpaio of Arizona has had a team on this for six months. And he has now gone public and said there’s something very desperately wrong with this and of course nobody is saying anything because the entire electorate has been fooled."
Here are some historical facts to consider: racism is a scourge on humanity that has fueled the slaughter of millions, the vast majority of the world's scientists have concluded not only that the Earth's atmosphere is warming but also that carbon dioxide from human activity is to blame, and Donald Trump is the only other prominent person on the planet who believes Obama was born in Kenya.
Political party preaches racism Down Under-style (2/16/13)
This week, an Australian pastor of Sri Lankan decent launched the Rise Up Australia party to run candidates in upcoming national elections. Planks of the party's platform include limiting Muslim immigration in Australia and turning back the clock on the country's multicultural policies.
Here's some quotes from Rise Up Australia's leader, Danny Nalliah, a supposed man of God:
"Tolerance has gone too much and the Rise Up Australia party is committed to keeping Australia Australian.”
Rise Up Australia ''cannot be tarnished with the racist brush because I'm a black fellow.''
“I think God created Chinese fried rice, and I love pizza … but please do not come and tell me that Sharia law should be introduced in Australia. You go back to where you came from.”
“One of the greatest pushes for multiculturalism comes from Muslim people. David Cameron is the perfect example of someone who has said ‘multiculturalism has failed.’ There are Sharia courts starting all over the U.K. If multiculturalism has been ineffective in Europe, why implement a failure in Australia?”
“I remember I read a speech by John F. Kennedy where he said, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.’ I asked myself how and what I can do for my adopted country of Australia. The whole country is losing rights at the cost of tolerance. There is only so much you can tolerate.”
As a devoted student of history, I'm familiar with many of JFK's speeches. Here's a couple excerpts from one of my favorites, a nationally televised speech Kennedy delivered in 1963:
"I hope that every American, regardless of where he lives, will stop and examine his conscience about this and other related incidents. This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.
"Today we are committed to a worldwide struggle to promote and protect the rights of all who wish to be free. And when Americans are sent to Vietnam or West Berlin, we do not ask for whites only. It ought to be possible, therefore, for American students of any color to attend any public institution they select without having to be backed up by troops.
"It ought to be possible for American consumers of any color to receive equal service in places of public accomodations, such as hotels and restaurants and theaters and retail stores, without being forced to resort to demonstrations in the street, and it ought to be possible for American citizens of any color to register to vote in a free election without interference or fear of reprisal.
"It ought to be possible, in short, for every American to enjoy the privileges of being American without regard to his race or his color. In short, every American ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as one would wish his children to be treated. But this is not the case.
"The Negro baby born in America today, regardless of the section of the Nation in which he is born, has about one-half as much chance of completing a high school as a white baby born in the same place on the same day, one-third as much chance of completing college, one-third as much chance of becoming a professional man, twice as much chance of becoming unemployed. ...
"We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the Scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution.
"The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated. If an American, because his skin is dark, cannot eat lunch in a restaurant open to the public, if he cannot send his children to the best public school available, if he cannot vote for the public officials who will represent him, if, in short, he cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want, then who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place? Who among us would then be content with the counsels of patience and delay?
"One hundred years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free. They are not yet freed from the bonds of injustice. They are not yet freed from social and economic oppression. And this Nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free."
View from the mountaintop remains clouded (2/16/13)
Newsflash: When a white supremacist tells you to do something that's blatantly racist, you shouldn't need a lawyer to tell you it's wrong.
As CNN reported today, a lawsuit against Hurley Medical Center in Flint, Mich., bears two of the hallmarks of racism in America: ingrained hatred and ignorance.
First the ingrained hatred: A man whose premature baby was being treated at Hurley Medical Center saw a black nurse attending to his child. He asked to see the nurse's supervisor and requested that no black nurses work with his baby. While making this request to the supervisor, the man flashed a tatoo with a "swastika of some kind."
Now the ignorance: The father's request went up the Hurley Medical Center chain of command and was granted. The black nurse's supervisor called her at home and told the woman she was being reassigned because the preemie's father didn't want black care givers working with his child. A note was placed prominently on the child's medical chart: "Please, no African-American nurses to care for ... baby per dad's request."
Hurley Medical Center's lawyer found out about the case, objected and the decision of hospital officials was reversed.
You would think this kind of event would be impossible more than 40 years after Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the last speech before his assassination. In that address, the civil rights legend said, "I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!"
King led America to the mountaintop, but for far too many of us the promised land is still miles away.
Roots of racism in American culture run deep (2/11/13)
Racism is one of the key threads in the fabric of American history. It's been present since long before the founding of the Republic, and it continues to color U.S. politics and economics to this day.
Based on my personal experience and reading of the historical record, American racism comes in two flavors: one rooted in deeply ingrained animosity and the other fueled by ignorance. While the open hatred that formed the basis of racism in the Deep South until the Civil Rights Movement is largely a relic of the past, racism continues to be sown in soil fertilized with ignorance.
I have repeatedly been exposed to the ignorant variety of racism in the state of New Hampshire. Forgive them, for they know not what they do.
The Granite State's population is 94.6 percent white and 1.6 percent black, according to the U.S. Census. Nationally, 78.1 percent of the population is white and 13.1 percent is black.
My first residency in New Hampshire began in the fall of 1998. I was hired to serve as the night editor at the Concord Monitor and made a bee line to the nearest pool hall to get a sense of the capital city's rank-and-file citizenry. While sipping a beer at the bar, I struck up a conversation with a "roofer," who was friendly and just as curious about me as I was about him.
"So, how do you like Concord?" he said.
"It seems like a really nice place," I said. "It's wierd though. I've been here for two weeks and I haven't seen a brown person yet."
"Yeah," he said. "Some of the worst niggers I know are white."
About four months later, I started dating a black girl. She told me stories that could have been set in Birmingham, Ala., in the 1950s.
One of Jen's more incredible recollections was the day her car was struck by another vehicle on Main Street about 50 yards from her apartment. The other driver was at fault.
The crowd formed quickly. The local police officer who responded to the scene didn't bother to talk with Jen, even though she had called for assistance. At least one onlooker called her a "stupid nigger" within earshot of the officer.
After more than a half hour waiting to give her statement, Jen approached the officer.
"Excuse me," she said, "do you want to ask me any questions? I was the one who called you."
"Shut up!" the officer responded, launching into a threatening tirade.
Jen had to call the state police to intervene.
I moved to Boston a year later, but love drew me back to Jen and New Hampshire in 2010. Soon after we started dating again, Jen and I went to a harvest festival at a local apple farm.
It was a beautiful fall day. The parking lot was packed. Other than Jen, the only other person of color we saw at the farm was guiding cars to parking spaces.
We walked into the huge barn that had been converted into retail space, looked around, then headed toward the orchard, where a large crowd was listening to live folk music. As we exited the barn into the bright field filled with patrons seated on lawn chairs and pumpkins, some lounging under an open-sided tent with broad red and white stripes, it was like a dark cloud had formed over their heads. Everyone but the band fell silent, and hundreds of disapproving eyes fixed on me and my future bride.
We got the message loud and clear. The black man in the parking lot appeared glad to see us leave. And he didn't look the least bit surprised that we were beating a hasty retreat.
Birmingham Police attack a civil rights activist in 1963. /Image via pbs.org
State: It's OK to say 'nigger' in the workplace (2/7/13)
A state official repeatedly referred to Chocolate Babies as "Nigger Babies" to several employees in the workplace. /Courtesy photo
Rus Lodi, one of my best mentors in journalism, had a unique perspective on the hiring of top managers drawn from his view of the coaching profession in the National Football League: It's surprisingly easy to screw up at one team and have another team hand you the keys to the organization.
Based on the recent experience of a family member, I have a similar theory. When a longtime manager commits gross misconduct in the workplace, it's suprisingly easy for organizations to decide it's easier to promote that manager to a new office than to terminate employment.
Here's the scenario.
My family member works in state government. On more than one occasion and in discussion with more than one other employee, her manager used the term "nigger" in the workplace. In at least one instance, the manager referred to the president of the United States as a "nigger." My family member is a person of color and, along with the workers who were subjected to this foul racial slur, she filed formal complaints with her state agency.
After a months-long internal investigation, state officials determined the following: my family member's manager did use the term "nigger" in the workplace on several occasions, there is no law barring state employees from using racial slurs in the workplace, and the creation of a hostile work environment only applies in sexual harassment cases.
This week, the obviously racist manager was promoted to lead an office in another part of the state.
I have drawn the following conclusions:
- The state in question, which has an overwhelmingly Caucasian population and is not located in the Deep South, has a problem when it comes to addressing racism.
- It's amazing how blatantly wrongful conduct in the workplace can be tolerated, even enabled, if an employer decides there's no solid legal grounds to do the right thing. (This conclusion is based on accepting the state's account of its decision-making at face value. In 2013, it's hard to believe an employer could not find legal grounds to discipline or terminate an employee for repeatedly using the term "nigger" in the workplace.)
- When it comes to investigating allegations of racism in the workplace, the state in question does not take the cases seriously. In this particular investigation, not only was the accused racist manager allowed to continue working in the office where her alleged misconduct had occurred, but also my family member had to fight to report to a new manager during the investigation.
- My family member needs to find a new job, preferably in a state that does not tolerate racism in the workplace.
European football racism hits boiling point (1/4/13)
Like a true United States of Europe, the European Union repeatedly faces flashes of racism. One of those flashes came Jan. 3 in Italy, where bi-racial AC Milan star Kevin-Prince Boateng and his teammates walked off the field en masse after he was taunted with monkey calls.
I often listen to the BBC while driving home after midnight. Racially fueled incidents at European football matches have been reported for years but appear to be accelerating.
Thursday's incident in Busto Arsizio was an exhibition game at Pro Patria, which plays in the fourth tier of Italian football. It will be interesting to see whether other teams will support their teammates as strongly when the stakes are higher in league or international games. But as a former player, I can say there is no stronger message than a whole team walking off the field with justice on their side.
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