Commentary by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
Sometimes the discourse on Daily Kos revolves around deep differences on both the direction of the Democratic Party and of the United States of America. Other times the discourse revolves about pettiness, perceived grievances, vengeance, and silliness.
Often in my opinion what gets loss is the real pain that ordinary people are going through. Yes many people will argue that their passion for their arguments come from this place of concern. But too many diaries that mention only the ideological opinion of the author and not how decisions to support or not support the party and the president effect the "average person on the street" belies this fact.
This nation sits on a precipice. The majority of the gains that black people have made over the last 30 years have been wiped out. Before us a cliff edge awaits that risks plunging us back to the worse conditions in black America since the end of segregation. I hope that sinks in.
A Picture of the Jobs Crisis—in Black, White and Brown
The arguments, the meta wars, the pie fights. They are meaningless before that fact.
I and the rest of the team at Black Kos strive to ensure that we remain Black Kos and note Obama Kos. But there are occasion where it would require a level of profound disconnect that I hope never to reach to not "rally around the flag". This is a moment where concern for the state of America needs to out way other arguments we may hide.
We are united in our commitment for an America where all people regardless of race, religion, class, or creed have the opportunity to succeed. Whether we are socialist, liberals, progressives, communist, feminist, atheist, centrist, social justice advocates, faith driven , or some combination of the above, we all are home in the Democratic party. We are members because we believe in what the Democratic party stands for.
We have a set of choice right now. We can focus on what President Obama, the Congressional leadership, the professional left, bloggers, labor leaders, precinct captains, or who ever else did of didn't do. We can focus on what we didn't like (or hated) about the Presidents plan. We can devolve into two camps and have another pie fight, meta war, or whatever some want to call it.
But what we need right now is to rally and fight united. The state of America is such that we needed a united Democratic party.
I'm not under the illusion that one commentary in one diary will paper over all the differences on this site. But I do know that when we choose to unite we are an incredible force for change. I do know that when we unite we can accomplish great things. I hope that everyone chooses to use this moment to rally around the president, the party, and America. Yes we can argue over this or that in the jobs plan. But the bottom line America needs jobs.
Somehow we need to find a way to unite. The situation in America is too dire to do otherwise.
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News by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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Very amazing collection amazing it was found in a cellar. Colorlines: Trove of Unseen Footage Revives History in ‘The Black Power Mixtape’
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“The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975“ is an incredible documentary with an equally incredible story behind it. The film, which opens in New York this week, is constructed entirely from hundreds of hours of archival footage of the black power movement, footage that’s not just rare, but unseen; it was shot by a Swedish news crew in the 1960s and 1970s, then left untouched in a Swedish TV station’s cellar for 30 years, where it was discovered by documentary filmmaker Göran Hugo Olsson.
Olsson knew he had something amazing on his hands and had no difficulty finding interested parties. In the finished feature-length film, the present-day voices of Harry Belafonte, Erykah Badu, Angela Davis, Bobby Seale, ?uestlove and others bring context to the history.
“The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975” drew critical acclaim after screening at Sundance in January. I had the privilege of seeing it at the True/False Film Festival in Missouri, and I haven’t shut up about it since. So I was thrilled to speak with Olsson on a transatlantic Skype call last week, and to ask him about Sweden’s little-heard connection to the black power movement, his role as a white, European man telling the story of black American communities, and the future of archival footage.
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Colorlines: A Picture of the Jobs Crisis—in Black, White and Brown
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Economists Look For Bold Ideas On Black Unemployment HuffingtonPost: Obama Jobs Speech
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But the nation's current employment picture closely mirrors the state of black unemployment before the recession began.
Fixing the overall jobs deficit and addressing the way that the recession has ravaged black and Latino households will require bold, even controversial solutions, economists say.
“It’s funny that what we call a crisis now is actually a little better than where black workers were in the so-called boom times,” said Algernon Austin, a labor sociologist at the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. “The fact that there was no targeted effort to address African-American unemployment before the recession is a large part of the reason that the jobs problem is so big now.”
In 2007, just before the recession began, black unemployment sat at 8.5 percent. In August, black unemployment reached 16.7 percent, a figure unseen since the 1980s. At the same time, the nation’s overall unemployment was 9.1 percent and job growth was zero. But in the depths of a jobs crisis that several economists say may portend a double-dip recession, white unemployment fell slightly to 8 percent.
Together, black and Latino workers make up nearly 40 percent of the nation’s unemployed.
To address a job crisis where black and Latino workers are being crushed but no one is doing well, the country needs a large influx of government spending and a commitment to create two major jobs programs, said Austin. One program should attempt to put any unemployed person back to work, and the other should target hard-hit demographic groups. Researchers at the Economic Policy Institute have found that the economy could support about $600 billion in government spending this year.
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The family of Mississippi hate crime victim James Craig Anderson has filed suit against the seven white teenagers that are alleged to have set out to harass a black man on the night of Anderson's murder. NewsOne: Mississippi Hate Crime Victim's Family Sues
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The family of a black man who authorities say was run over by a white teenager in a truck is suing over the alleged hate crime.The lawsuit filed Tuesday in Mississippi accuses seven white teenagers of setting out on June 26 in search of a black man to harass.
A defendant in the lawsuit, Deryl Dedmon, is charged with capital murder and robbery in the death of 49-year-old James Craig Anderson.
Authorities say Dedmon intentionally ran over Anderson with a pickup truck in Jackson on June 26. Dedmon was scheduled for a preliminary hearing Tuesday on the criminal charges.
Another defendant in the lawsuit, John Aaron Rice, is charged with assault.
If I may quote The Root:
Yeah, the teens allegedly concocted the plan before leaving a party to seek out a black man to "harass" who actually ended up dead. After his murder, they allegedly reconvened and celebrated the incident in which they "weren't involved" at a local McDonald's, not at a police station which is where someone who was not involved in the crime would be -- reporting it. In the words of Cameo, this group of teens is talking out the side of their necks. You can trust and believe that if seven black teenagers had plotted to "harass" a white man, that ended up murdered, they would all be charged with capital murder, especially in Mississippi. The fact that they aren't being criminally charged is ridiculous. Hopefully this suit will help Anderson's family get some type of justice, since the criminal justice system has obviously failed them by declining to charge all involved in the senseless murder of their loved one.