Why we just can't go to Netroots '15 in Arizona......
Commentary by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
Netroots Nation has always been an event that we at Black Kos have looked forward to attending. As both an attendee and a panel host/sponsor Black Kos has for several years been a part of Netroots Nation. Individually our editors and feature writers have been active participants. But unfortunately in 2015 as Black Kos managing editor I can't in good conscience attend or participate in an event held in Arizona. Black Kos has always tried to represent both the larger African/black diaspora, as well as being a strong anti-racist force, attending an event held in Maricopa County, Arizona would in my opinion undermine our credibility on these issues. By the representing the larger African diaspora that includes, black immigrants.
1 out of every 12 blacks in America are of foreign descent, black immigrants account for more than one-quarter of the black population in New York, Boston, and Miami. Including 2nd generation immigrants that number rises to 1 out of 8 blacks in America. Ignoring an issue, such as immigration that directly effects 1 out of every 8 people our group is supposed to represent isn't something I can do in good conscience.
Secondly Maricopa County Arizona is infamous for its use of racial profiling. Driving while brown is no different than driving while black (they even share the same acronym DWB). As a strong supporter of anti-racist policies, I once again can't in good conscience participate in an event in Maricopa County Arizona.
I understand people in good conscience can disagree about the symbolic power of holding an event in the heart of the "opposition's territory", that position does hold some merit. Furthermore both personally and the editorial policy of Black Kos, has been to avoid meta-wars in the sake of unity. But on this issue, I feel too strongly to stay silent.
I have been a frequent victim of both police profiling and anti-immigrant rhetoric over the years. When confronted with a situation like this, I simply have to hold to my position. I hope those going enjoy themselves, build strong networks, organize, and help to fire up the base. I would love to see a "blue wave" strike Arizona in November and remove many of the worst of the anti-immigrant forces. But even with that, I would have an issue with the convention being awarded to Arizona because it was done under the current political climate.
This was a very difficult decisions, but in closing I just can't participate in Netroots 2015.
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News by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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A iconic restaraunt that championed civil rights is closing its doors. New York Times: Miami Diner, Pioneer in City’s Race Relations, Serves Last Cup.
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While the line of white customers used to snake out the door at Jumbo’s, a 24-hour diner here, black people were served fried shrimp from a takeout window in the back or crammed into a small table in a darkened storage room.
That was the early 1960s, before the restaurant became the soul-food landmark of black Miami, a place where the power brokers came to strike deals, gangsters arrived after dark and the corner table was reserved for older men with names like Chicken George. The fried chicken, Caribbean conch, liver and onions, and other tastes of home have been served up every night for nearly 60 years to celebrities, athletes and locals returning from nightclubs and Sunday church services.
After 150 Years of Rolling Them, Tampa Is Close to No Cigars. The owners say that Jumbo’s, in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood, was the first white-owned restaurant to employ and serve blacks. Nonetheless, the diner will close its doors for good on Wednesday after enduring years of white flight, riots, hurricanes and a fatal accident when a truck drove through the front window. The closing will end a six-decade run that epitomized the urban core’s struggle against blight and served as a time capsule of changing race relations.
“When I came in, they were putting the sign up saying they were closing, and tears just started rolling,” Shirley A. Edwards, who remembers eating in the storage room in the dark, said on Sunday.
Jumbo’s is on Seventh Avenue, a busy, commercial inner-city thoroughfare that was once filled with appliance stores and other white-owned businesses. The street served as an imaginary color line separating the races.
Jumbo’s, now considered a soul-food landmark, had most workers quit in 1967 after the owner, Bobby Flam, said he would start hiring and serving black people. Credit Angel Valentin for The New York Tim
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A judge found that additional evidence did not warrant another hearing. Florida State Attorney Angela Corey is seeking a 60-year sentence for Alexander, who was convicted of aggravated assault for firing what she said was a warning shot at her abusive husband. Salon: Marissa Alexander Is Denied New Hearing; Still Faces 60 Years in Prison.
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A judge has ruled against providing Marissa Alexander, 33, with a new “Stand your ground” hearing.
Alexander was originally convicted and sentenced in 2012 to 20 years in prison for firing a warning shot during a confrontation with her abusive husband, Rico Gray. The conviction was overturned on appeal.
The “Stand your ground” law allows for a person to fire if there is “reasonable fear of imminent peril of death or great bodily harm to himself or herself.” Alexander was denied immunity under the law during her first trial.
Her defense team argued that her case warranted another hearing because there was new evidence—including expert testimony on battered woman syndrome and Gray’s history of domestic violence—to introduce. Circuit Judge James Daniel, however, found on Friday that “the basic outlines of her claim and [Gray’s] claim have not changed at all.” He also ruled that the recent addition of a “warning shot” provision to Florida’s “Stand your ground” law could not be applied retroactively.
Alexander’s case is now set to be retried. State Attorney Angela Corey is seeking a 60-year sentence this time around. Alexander, who is out of jail on bond, faces three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
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Christian militia and Muslim rebels agree to halt more than a year of violence that has killed thousands of people. The Guardian: Central African Republic rivals agree ceasefire after Brazzaville talks.
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Central African Republic's (CAR) mainly Muslim Seleka rebels have signed a ceasefire with the "anti-balaka" Christian militia, after dropping their demand for the country to be split along religious lines.
Seleka's call for CAR to be officially partitioned into a Muslim north and a Christian south risked derailing talks aimed at ending religious violence that has killed thousands of people.
The truce was signed on Wednesday in Brazzaville, Congo, after three days of talks hosted by the president, Denis Sassou N'Guesso, chief mediator in his neighbouring country's crisis.
The clashes in CAR have forced a million people, or about a quarter of the population, to flee their homes. "We have taken the first step today. The journey is long, but we have made promises. After what has happened here, I am confident," Sassou N'Guesso said at the signing ceremony.
The Brazzaville talks involved dozens of members of armed groups, the transitional government and civil society members. Further negotiations will be held in CAR over the country's political future.
Seleka soldiers in Bangui, Central African Republic. The ceasefire was signed in Brazzaville after three days of talks. Photograph: Jerome Delay/AP
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How the recession turned owners into renters and obliterated black American wealth. Slate: The Crisis in Black Homeownership.
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In 2005, three years before the Great Recession, the median black household had a net worth of $12,124. Yes, this was far behind the median white household—which had a net worth of $134,992—but it was a huge improvement from previous decades, in which housing discrimination made wealth accumulation difficult (if not impossible) for the large majority of African-American families.
By the official end of the recession in 2009, median household net worth for blacks had fallen to $5,677—a generation’s worth of hard work and progress wiped out. (The number for whites, by comparison, was $113,149.) Overall, from 2007 to 2010, wealth for blacks declined by an average of 31 percent, home equity by an average of 28 percent, and retirement savings by an average of 35 percent. By contrast, whites lost 11 percent in wealth, lost 24 percent in home equity, and gained 9 percent in retirement savings. According to a 2013 report by researchers at Brandeis University, “half the collective wealth of African-American families was stripped away during the Great Recession.”
It was a startling retrenchment, creating the largest wealth, income, and employment gaps since the 1990s. And, if a new study from researchers at Cornell University and Rice University is any indication, these gaps are deep, persistent, and difficult to eradicate.
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