jim crow // Current TV

It’s Primary Election Day Tuesday 29 May 2012

Last Friday 25 May 2012 was the last day of early voting. Today Tuesday 29 May 2012 is... more

robertruiz
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1 day ago
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Public Policy & Elections, diagnosis: hypocrisy; prognosis: terminal

The lofty “ideals” which provided so much impetus for rebellion for some... more

robertruiz
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3 months ago
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Rick Perry’s Newest Problem: His Fond Memories of “Niggerhead” and Growing Up in a Sundown Town

It was a mostly white world. In 1950, the census counted about 900 black residents out... more

letsliveinpeace
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8 months ago
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32 comments

Enough With The Pot Jokes

This is Serious - it affects all of us, and it should be the easiest thing to cut to decrease the nation's debt. Alcohol Prohibition didn't work, and arresting people for ganja doesn't work, so why not make people who sell card for age verification and get it legal already?
Every one might benefit medically from cannabis at some point in their life, and it prevents cancer and neuro-degenerative diseases, so cut the doctors note bureaucracy and make it over the counter for adults.

In 2007 there were over 850,000 marijuana arrests (PDF). The United States has only 5% of the worlds population but imprisons 25% of its prisoners. The federal government spent over $15 billion on the drug war in 2010, or a rate of $500 a second. Our country is 66% non-Hispanic white people but 70% of our prisoners are non-white. The justice system is overwhelmingly unfriendly to the poor. And on and on.

I don't understand how it can possibly remain the case that these facts are out there and yet marijuana legalization is somehow seen as a less than serious issue. This is a social justice issue. This is a racial justice issue. This is a deficit reduction issue. This is an issue of elementary personal freedoms. But we can't fix things as long as people who are ostensibly in favor of decriminalization continue to say so with a smirk, or relegate the issue to the margins, or treat it as a distraction or joke. It's time to get serious about a serious and deeply troubling issue.

(Photo: Darnell Thomas (L) reads while his cellmate Freddron Mendoza works on his poetry in their cell at Sheridan Correctional Center on November 14, 2005 in Sheridan, Illinois. A dedicated center for the treatment of inmates with drug and alcohol abuse problems, the state opened Sheridan in January 2004 to combat a recidivism rate of 54% in its penal system. Nearly 69 percent of all inmates in the Illinois prison system are serving time for drug or alcohol related offenses. The recidivism rate for prisoners who have served time at Sheridan is only 7.7 percent. By Scott Olson/Getty Images)This is Serious - it affects all of us, and it should be the easiest thing to cut to... more

juicie
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1 year ago
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10 comments

Texas Red’s GOPers take from the poor, give to the rich, eliminate rights

The GOPer dominated Texas Red legislature is such that unlike Wisconsin even if the... more

robertruiz
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1 year ago
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1 comment

Texas Red lapdogs raise taxes? And help the poor? Forfend

What raise taxes and offend the gods? I mean the oligarchs? Forfend. It really is... more

robertruiz
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1 year ago
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Shortfalls and pitfalls a day in the life of Texas Red…

There’s just too damn many people in the world and most of them are the... more

robertruiz
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1 year ago
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1 comment

Texas Red: tyranny by majority, Jim Crow is the status quo

Voter ID is tyranny by majority. It is also a poll tax. It is purely and simply a Jim... more

robertruiz
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1 year ago
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Jim Crow South lives on in Texas Reds’ GOPers

"I belong to no organized party, I'm a Democrat." - Will Rogers... more

robertruiz
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1 year ago
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Republicans Succeeding In Suppressing Minority Voter Registration

After more than a decade of success expanding voter rolls, voting rights advocates are noting a disturbing trend in the run-up to the 2010 elections. Dramatically fewer groups are engaged in registering voters during the current election cycle than in previous midterm elections, and fewer voters, especially in poorer areas that are traditionally underrepresented and therefore the usual target of voter registration drives, are registering to vote as a result.

Registration patterns vary significantly from state to state, but 26.7 percent fewer new voters have registered in Florida this year than in 2006, along with 21.4 percent fewer in Maryland and 16.9 percent fewer in Tennessee, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, a public policy and law institute at New York University. And while there’s no single cause for the decline, experts point out that many independent organizations are withering under a combination of public attacks by conservative activists alleging voter fraud and new state laws making it difficult for such groups to operate.

“A four-year wave of attacks on voter registration drives, both in terms of state laws that either shut down voter registration drives or made it too onerous to do it, and other public attacks have certainly had an effect,” said Wendy Weiser, director of the Brennan Center’s Voting Rights and Elections Project.

And while voter registration drives have languished, state governments aren’t picking up the slack. Voting rights advocates argue that many states aren’t adequately complying with requirements in the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 to register voters automatically at state agencies and keep their addresses up to date when they move. The result is a gaping hole in the country’s voter registration efforts that threatens to undo the positive strides that have been made over the last decade and a half.

The most obvious cause for the decline in voter registration is the shuttering of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. At its height, ACORN had a budget of close to $35 million and was credited with registering approximately half a million voters in 2008 alone. Amid allegations from conservative activists that the group engaged in widespread voter fraud, Congress voted last fall to defund ACORN(http://j.mp/9RSrGC), which received approximately a third of its budget in the form of government grants. The rest of the group’s funding soon dried up, and ACORN was forced to cease operations at its approximately 75 field offices soon thereafter.

But rather than rest on the laurels of their victory against ACORN, conservative activists have been emboldened to seek out new(http://j.mp/9qDMyo) organizations engaging in voter registration drives and levy similar accusations against them, creating an increasingly hostile landscape for them to perform their mission.

“I wouldn’t underestimate the public attacks,” says Weiser. “It’s not a law prohibiting you, so it’s a little harder to demonstrate, but the chilling effects have nonetheless been palpable. People are nervous to do drives and support groups that do this kind of work.”

Tea Party groups, revved up by accusations made against ACORN in 2008, have worked(http://j.mp/9ZycNX) to challenge voter registration drives and contest votes on election day in a number of states, including California, Wisconsin and New Mexico. But the clearest example of attacks launched against new groups seeking to register voters occurred in Harris County, Texas, where True The Vote, which is affiliated with the Tea Party group the King Street Patriots, dug through the county’s registrations and accused a voter registration organization called Houston Votes of engaging in widespread voter fraud in August.

The controversy centered on a number of voter registration forms filed by Houston Votes that were rejected because they were linked to vacant lots and people that did not exist. Many of these registrations, Houston Votes argues, had been made in 2008 and 2009 — before the group was founded and when many of the lots still had homes on them. But the damage had been done. King Street Patriots’ leader Catherine Engelbrecht allegedly referred to Houston Votes as the “New Black Panthers’ office”; Houston Votes responded by filing suit for defamation.

“When someone says you’re associated with racists that are trying to kill all white people, then it has a chilling effect on donors willing to give to your organization, which has an effect on the amount of work you can do. That’s pretty simple-minded stuff,” said Jim George, the lawyer representing Houston Votes. In recent months, the group has been forced to slow its activities(http://j.mp/9WuOqa) to registering just 200 votes a day, down from over a 1,000 before the allegations were leveled.After more than a decade of success expanding voter rolls, voting rights advocates are... more

toyotabedzrock
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1 year ago
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The New Jim Crow: the War on Drugs

Ever since Barack Obama lifted his right hand and took his oath of office, pledging to... more

covelogibbs
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2 years ago
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The Birthers and Jim Crow 2.0

The manufactured anger driving the birthers and health care town halls is the same... more

atomiclegion
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2 years ago
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32 comments

Supreme Court to hear challenge to voting rights act

"The Supreme Court announced Friday that it will hear a challenge to the landmark... more

DeliaTheArtist
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3 years ago
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1 comment

The New Jim Crow: GOP Destroying the Black Vote

Lose your home, lose your vote? Black voters asked to show unusual forms of I.D.? Fake... more

caseygane
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3 years ago
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0 comments

House apologizes for slavery, Jim Crow

I wont argue with the timing, nor question the feasibility of the measure. I will... more

raheims
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3 years ago
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4 comments

Formal Apology for Slavery?

WASHINGTON - The House on Tuesday issued an unprecedented apology to black Americans... more

ivxx
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3 years ago
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1 comment

Emperor - Chapter 13

PREJUDICE: Marijuana and the Jim Crow Laws Since the abolition of slavery, racism... more

JackHerer
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3 years ago
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House poised to apologize for slavery, Jim Crow

The House of Representatives was poised Tuesday to pass a resolution apologizing to... more

khasson
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3 years ago
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2 comments

Barack the Magic Negro Song!!!

Why has this not gained more attention?...What do you think

gveStudios
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3 years ago
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3 comments

Bench of Memory at Slavery’s Gateway

At Fort Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island, S.C.: Toni Morrison, far left, led the... more

gveStudios
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3 years ago
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