Category Archives: human rights

September 17, 2016 · 3:13 pm

Dakota Pipeline Part 2: Betrayal by bulldozer

nodapl-with-dog-a-golden

Image by A. Golden, published under Creative Commons license.

 

On Friday, September 2, lawyers for the Standing Rock Sioux went to court to ask for a halt to construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline over specific sacred sites and burial grounds. They provided a map of the specific cultural sites identified by the tribe’s expert.

The very next day — September 3, Saturday of Labor Day weekend — Energy Transfer Company sent its bulldozers to destroy the specific cultural sites identified in the map submitted to the court. Continue reading →

5 Comments

Filed under environment, human rights, race

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

September 17, 2016 · 2:09 pm

Dakota Pipeline Part 1: Breaking the rules

 

By now, everyone who reads this blog has heard about #NoDAPL, the protests in North Dakota over the Dakota Access Pipeline. The issues are either very simple (NO to all pipelines, everywhere, end of story) or quite complex, involving Native rights, a protest encampment and permits and injunctions, arrests of protesters and journalists, calling out the National Guard, procedural challenges to the Army Corps of Engineers, destruction of Standing Rock Sioux Tribe cultural and burial sites, other substantive challenges based on water protection and climate change, defeats and partial victories in court, and federal government orders to stop the construction – or to stop parts of it. Confused yet?

Since I make sense out of confusion by reading and writing, and since you (presumably) read this blog for some kind of enlightenment, I’m posting a two or three or maybe even four-part explanation of what is going on. This is the first part: Continue reading →

6 Comments

Filed under environment, human rights, race

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , ,

August 5, 2016 · 1:55 pm

Cheering for the Olympic refugee team: They’re already winners

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Yusra Mardini and her sister fled the war in Syria, two teenagers making their way through Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, the Balkans and Central Europe to Germany. Crossing the Mediterranean in an overloaded rubber boat, they jumped in the water when the engine died and the boat started taking on water. Here’s how the New York Times tells her story:

“Of the 20 people on board, only the Mardini sisters and two young men knew how to swim, so the four of them jumped overboard. It was about 7 at night, and the turning tide had made the sea harsh and choppy. …

“Mardini and her sister swam for three and a half hours, helping the boat stay on course — even when the two male swimmers gave up and let the dinghy pull them along. It was cold, Mardini said. Her clothes dragged her down, and salt burned her eyes and skin.

“’I’m thinking, what? I’m a swimmer, and I’m going to die in the water in the end?’ she said.”

Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under human rights, immigration

Tagged as , , ,

July 11, 2016 · 4:25 pm

Why police reform doesn’t matter

Justice Fibonacci

Photo by Fibonacci Blue, published under Creative Commons license

Police reform is simultaneously vitally important and relatively useless. Vitally significant: as Ijeoma Oluo demands, we need to work for police reform “every day like your life depends on it – ours actually does.” And relatively useless, because policing in America is embedded in and represents a culture and society that remain deeply racist and that culture and society must change or no police reform will succeed. Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under human rights, police and crime, race

Tagged as , , , , ,

July 11, 2016 · 4:25 pm

Moving — now — toward police reform

Stop executing black people Fibonacci

Photo by Fibonacci Blue, published under Creative Commons license

We need police reform, but, bottom line: police reform is not enough. Just like passing the 1964 Civil Rights Act or the 1965 Voting Rights Act was not enough. Not enough — because reforming police practices, policies, training will not end racism. But saying police reform is not enough does not mean that such reform is not needed, not essential, not potentially life-saving. Police reform is not THE solution, but reforms are some of the necessary steps along the road to solutions. Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under human rights, police and crime, race

Tagged as , , , , ,

July 8, 2016 · 7:01 pm

“Normal white Americans” and Black American life and death

IMG_0725.JPG

Never thought I’d agree with Newt Gingrich, but … today he said that “normal white Americans” don’t understand “being black in America” and that they “under-estimate the level of discrimination and the level of additional risk.”

“Normal white Americans” can and must try to understand more. Trying to understand is not about trying to help black people. Trying to understand is about recognizing that we are all in this together — together in this community, in this city, state, country, world.  Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under human rights, police and crime, race

Tagged as , , , ,

July 7, 2016 · 8:16 pm

Remembering Mr. Phil

IMG_0727

Mr. Phil. That’s what the kids at J.J. Hill Montessori School in St. Paul called Philando Castile, who was shot and killed by police on Wednesday night. Thursday night, his school family held a vigil for him. This is not the way he should be famous, someone said. This is not how he should be remembered.A parent  called him “Mr. Rogers with dreadlocks.” Fellow staff members said Mr. Phil was patient and kind and caring. Mr. Phil loved his job and all of “his” kids in the school. Mr. Phil gave them breakfast and hugs and direction. “Everything Mr. Phil did in this school was for the kids,” another parent said.  Continue reading →

3 Comments

Filed under human rights, police and crime, race

Tagged as , , , ,

July 7, 2016 · 2:31 pm

White friends and family – join me today

IMG_0720

One more black man tragically, senselessly murdered by police. That’s what I thought last night, going to bed with Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge on my mind. Woke up this morning to find another black man senselessly murdered by police — right here. Philando Castile, St. Paul Central grad, cafeteria worker at J.J. Hill school, stopped for a broken taillight and then shot to death by the police officer. In Falcon Heights. Less than five miles from my home. What can I do? What can any of us do?

I started by just showing up at a vigil, adding my body and voice to those gathered to remember Philando Castile and to protest his killing. You can do that, too. Next up: a vigil and march organized by parents at J.J. Hill Montessori School where Philando Castile worked. They knew him. Their kids loved him. We can put our bodies there to say enough — no more police shooting of black men in our city, state, nation. You can do it, too. Just come to the school at 998 Selby Avenue in St. Paul (a few blocks east of Lexington) at 5:30. Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under human rights, police and crime, race

Tagged as , , , ,

June 21, 2016 · 12:31 pm

The beginning and end of rape

Screen Shot 2016-06-21 at 1.28.41 PM.png

Sarah Deer’s powerful new book, The Beginning and End of Rape focuses on sexual violence in Native America. The beginning goes back to the European invasion, with rape used as a tool of genocide and conquest. Now, as then, when European American men rape Native women, U.S. legal systems help them escape punishment. In an eminently readable book, law professor and MacArthur genius grant winner Sarah Deer describes the historical trajectory of rape and rape laws, beginning with the historical connection between rape and conquest / genocide / white patriarchy and legal systems. Continue reading →

11 Comments

Filed under gender, human rights, race

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

June 20, 2016 · 9:43 pm

63 million people and a crisis of solidarity

Screen Shot 2016-06-20 at 10.20.04 PM.png

A new UN refugee agency report shows 65.3 million people forcibly displaced from their homes around the world. Of that number, 21.3 million are refugees and 3.2 million are aseeking asylum. Another 40.8 million internally displaced persons live inside their home coujntries, but have been forced out of their homes.

Numbers can only hint at human suffering. Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under human rights, immigration

Tagged as , ,