tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42383985260344649252024-03-08T07:30:17.398-05:00blog.ifatunji.com"News on Race and Migration throughout the African Diaspora."Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00901753654308155860noreply@blogger.comBlogger207125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4238398526034464925.post-86762446369700448362013-05-29T22:14:00.001-04:002013-05-29T22:14:17.490-04:00A year in review: Anti-African racism and asylum seekers in Israel | +972 Magazine<div><div class="original-url"><a href="http://972mag.com/a-year-in-review-anti-african-racism-and-asylum-seekers-in-israel/72381/">http://972mag.com/a-year-in-review-anti-african-racism-and-asylum-seekers-in-israel/72381/</a><br><br></div><div id="article"> <!-- This node will contain a number of 'page' class divs. --> <div class="page" style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; "><h1 class="title">A year in review: Anti-African racism and asylum seekers in Israel</h1> <header> <h3>By <a rel="author" href="http://972mag.com/author/972blog/">+972blog</a></h3> <time pubdate="pubdate" datetime="2013-05-29T20:57:42+00:00"><span>|</span>Published May 29, 2013 </time> </header> <div> <div> <p><strong><em>While most Israelis were focused on the latest war on Gaza or the last election, verbal incitement, physical attacks, incarceration without trial and forced deportation of Africans continued unabated. A timeline of Israel's war on African asylum-seekers between November 2012 and May 2013.</em></strong></p> <p>By David Sheen</p> <div><a href="http://972mag.com/a-year-in-review-anti-african-racism-and-asylum-seekers-in-israel/72381/refugees-9/" rel="attachment wp-att-72434"><img title="An African refugee holds a sign reading: "We are all refugees", during a demonstration in Tel Aviv against racism and the government's policy against African refugees, July 28, 2012. (photo: Activestills)" src="http://972mag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/refugees.jpg" alt="" class="reader-image-large"></a><div><p>An African refugee holds a sign reading: "We are all refugees", during a demonstration in Tel Aviv against racism and the government's policy against African refugees, July 28, 2012. (photo: Activestills)</p><small></small></div></div> <p>Last Thursday, May 23, 2013, marked exactly one year to the day when a thousand Jewish Israelis ran rampant through the streets of Tel Aviv, smashing and looting African-operated businesses and physically assaulting any dark-skinned person they came across. Sadly, the Israeli economic, political and religious establishment – who were in large measure responsible for the pogrom – did not respond by working to quash the racism, but rather ramped up their efforts to expel all non-Jewish African people from the country.</p> <p>In previous articles and videos, I chronicled in detail the incitement that precipitated the anti-African race riot, and the persecution that came in its wake. The <a href="http://www.davidsheen.com/racism/proto.htm">first</a> details the month preceding the riot, the <a href="http://storify.com/davidsheen/afrikristallnacht">second</a> describes the day of the riot, the <a href="http://www.davidsheen.com/racism/2months.htm">third</a> details the two months that followed, while the <a href="http://www.davidsheen.com/racism/5months.htm">last</a> one details the next three months, chronologically. This article is a timeline of Israel's war on African asylum seekers over the next seven months, between November 2012 and May 2013.</p> <p>In November and December 2012, most Israelis were focused on the army's assault on Gaza, and in January 2013, they were mainly occupied with national elections. In February and March, the formation of a new government and a visit by U.S. President Obama commanded the news headlines, and in April and May, internal tensions over the respective rights and responsibilities of different groups of Jews were the most pressing issues discussed in the Israeli media.</p> <p>During these seven months, the issue of what to do about non-Jewish African asylum seekers did not generate as much media attention as it did in the days that followed the May 23, 2012 pogrom. But throughout, the verbal incitement against Africans continued, the physical attacks on Africans continued, the incarceration without trial of Africans continued and the forced deportation of Africans continued. The new Netanyahu government continued the same racist policies as the old one.</p> <p align="center"><strong>State persecution of asylum seekers</strong></p> <div><a href="http://972mag.com/a-week-in-photos-october-25-31/58872/6-8130311315_b98560b226_o/" rel="attachment wp-att-58879"><img title="Immigration authorities arrest a mother and her daughter, Tel Aviv, Israel, 28.10.2012" src="http://972mag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/6-8130311315_b98560b226_o.jpg" alt="" class="reader-image-large"></a><div><p>Inspectors from Oz Unit (the immigration authority) arrest a mother moments after she brought her daughter to the kindergarten in "Hatikva" neighborhood in Tel Aviv. After her arrest they went to the kindergarten and arrested the girl as well. The mother and her child did not have the option to go and fetch their belongings or to say goodbye to friends and family. (photo by: Oren Ziv/ <a href="http://Activestills.org">Activestills.org</a>)</p><small></small></div></div> <p>In the beginning of November, two Israeli NGOs <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/report-african-torture-victims-held-under-devastating-conditions-in-israel-1.475391">released a report</a> documenting the devastating conditions under which the Israeli government holds African asylum seekers against their will. At the <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4301505,00.html">Saharonim detention facility</a>, where thousands of men, women and children are cramped into crowded conditions and exposed to the harsh desert, there is a shortage of medical care, there are no education or recreation facilities, and they are allowed no privacy or visitors.</p> <p>For African asylum seekers who haven't been swept off the streets into incarceration, humiliation and exploitation are the norm. Public buildings <a href="http://news.walla.co.il/?w=%2F90%2F2608095">refuse them admittance</a> and force them to wait for service outside in the cold or in dismal underground parking lots. Many <a href="http://www.davidsheen.com/racism/status121209.gif">Africans are afraid</a> to even jaywalk across the street, petrified of being picked up for even the slightest infraction and being sent to jail indefinitely without trial. Israeli citizens know full well that African asylum seekers' rights and freedoms are precarious and subject to summary revocation. As a result, Israelis often <a href="http://megafon-news.co.il/asys/archives/105257">take advantage of Africans</a> and extort them for large sums of money.</p> <p>As most African asylum seekers are denied work permits, some choose to purchase forgeries, so they can eke out a living. If they are caught engaging in this deception, the government brands them a "<a href="http://972mag.com/eritrean-woman-placed-in-administrative-detention-for-purchasing-fake-work-permit/65681/">threat to public safety</a>" and incarcerates them indefinitely. In late December, the government announced that it would refrain from conducting arrests during the Christian holiday season, between Christmas and New Years. But it was just a ruse: when Africans emerged from their homes to do their holiday shopping, the <a href="http://972mag.com/asylum-seekers-arrested-in-tel-aviv-raid-after-authorities-announce-holiday-reprieve/62475/">authorities pounced on them</a> and dragged them off to jail. Immigration police continued to ambush Africans <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/health-ministry-israel-immigration-police-ambushing-africans.premium-1.492991">outside the few health clinics</a> that agree to serve asylum seekers.</p> <p>On Christmas Eve itself, <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-to-start-repatriating-african-migrants-netanyahu-announces/">Prime Minister Netanyahu announced</a> that the construction of a border fence had been completed and that it was effectively preventing any more African asylum seekers from entering the country. He then said that the <a href="http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=297148">government would now focus</a> on driving out all of the 60,000 or so African asylum seekers who are already in the country.</p> <p>Netanyahu's Christmas Eve call to cleanse the country of non-Jewish Africans conclusively put to rest any hope that his government would stop hounding the asylum seekers once the border fence was complete. It also dispelled the argument that Israel's war on Africans was only the pet project of its then-Interior Minister Eli Yishai, and it validated my report published two weeks earlier by The Electronic Intifada, <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/dirty-dozen-israels-racist-ringleaders/11999">The Dirty Dozen</a>, which identified Netanyahu as the country's top racist.</p> <p>In February, United Nations officials in Israel accused Israel of <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-accused-of-coercing-eritrean-refugees-to-volunteer-for-deportation.premium-1.503447">secretly coercing asylum seekers</a> languishing in its detention facilities to return to the country they fled from, Eritrea, which the UN called a "totalitarian state" that "tortures dissenters." Forcing them to choose between deportation or rotting in jail indefinitely, the editors of <em>Haaretz</em> called Israel's offer to Eritrean asylum seekers a "<a href="http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/a-voluntary-death-penalty-1.503665">'voluntary' death penalty</a>."</p> <p>A week later, <em>Haaretz</em> revealed that the Israeli government had also been <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-secretly-repatriated-1-000-to-sudan-without-informing-un.premium-1.505806">secretly sending asylum seekers</a> back to Sudan. Confronted with the evidence, the <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/eli-yishai-confirms-haaretz-report-more-than-2-000-sudanese-left-israel-voluntarily.premium-1.507417">government admitted</a> to secretly smuggling out over 2,000 Sudanese asylum seekers. The act even contravened a ruling of Israel's Supreme Court, due to the danger the asylum seekers face upon their repatriation. The United Nations representative in Israel called this act "the gravest violation possible of the convention that Israel has signed – a crime never before committed."</p> <p>Caught in the act, Israel's attorney-general <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/attorney-general-orders-a-halt-to-israel-s-deportation-of-eritrean-migrants-1.507262">ordered an end</a> to the secret deportations of asylum seekers from Eritrea. But a month later, in April, the deputy attorney general clarified that the order <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/deputy-ag-clarifies-israel-does-not-rule-out-deportation-of-sudanese-migrants.premium-1.514426">does not apply</a> to asylum seekers from Sudan. Another month later, in May, the attorney-general announced that he had instructed his office to formulate guidelines which would <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-s-ag-to-draw-up-guidelines-for-voluntary-repatriation-of-jailed-eritrean-sudanese-migrants.premium-1.523675">streamline the deportation</a> of all African asylum seekers living in Israel.</p> <p align="center"><strong>Israel's election results, and their impact on the state's asylum regime</strong></p> <p>In the run-up to the Israeli elections, most major political parties campaigned on platforms which included advocating the expulsion of all African asylum seekers. The ruling Likud Beiteinu party publicly spoke of the war on Africans as one of the government's "<a href="http://www.israelhayom.co.il/site/newsletter_article.php?id=24978">accomplishments</a>" and a good reason for it to be re-elected. The Strong Israel party continued its tradition of organizing anti-African rallies in the Tel Aviv neighborhoods with the highest concentrations of asylum seekers.</p> <p></p> <p>When the final tally was taken, the National Union party, as a faction of the Jewish Home party, received a strong showing and entered the government as a key coalition partner, with 12 seats. The two members of Knesset who left the National Union party to form Strong Israel were not reelected to parliament, but only just barely. From outside the Knesset, they continue to drum up anti-African sentiment.</p> <p></p> <p>Eli Yishai's Shas party won 11 seats in the new Knesset, but rival religious party Jewish Home forged an alliance with new secular Yesh Atid Party to keep Shas out of the coalition. Yishai grudgingly relinquished his hold on the all-important Interior Ministry, which wields immense power over the lives of African asylum seekers. But before he completed his tenure, he published an official government report on African asylum seekers to perpetuate his racist legacy.</p> <p>Named for the Israeli academic who authored it, the <a href="http://bit.ly/nazishai">Sofer Report</a> is a blueprint for ethnically cleansing the country of Africans. It calls for <a href="http://www.o139.org/2013/03/blog-post_7.html">toughening the rules of engagement</a> on Israel's borders to send smugglers a message – a euphemism for possibly instructing soldiers to shoot asylum seekers, a position of some of Israel's most racist lawmakers. It labels Israeli citizens and others who advocate for the rights of African asylum seekers as "anti-Semitic" and possibly terrorists, and calls for them to be arrested.</p> <p>The Sofer Report minces no words concerning the 60,000 African asylum seekers already in Israel. "There's no room for another ethno-national group in Israel," the report says, "they must be expelled." The report dispenses with the whitewashed term "detention" that the government once used to describe its prison for asylum seekers, and now shamelessly adopts the word "<a href="http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4352575,00.html">concentration</a>" to describe the camp it decrees the Africans must be rounded into.</p> <p>In the new Netanyahu government, Yishai was replaced at his post in the Interior Ministry by Likud-Beiteinu lawmaker Gideon Sa'ar. Upon taking office, <a href="http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Saar-Govt-needs-to-work-to-send-migrants-home-309258">Saar publicly confirmed</a> that Israel's policy remains unchanged, that it was still committed to expelling all African asylum seekers from the country. Touring Tel Aviv neighborhoods with large African populations, he stopped to listen to veteran Israelis' concerns, but refused to speak to any Africans that approached him.</p> <p>Meanwhile, Likud Beiteinu lawmaker Miri Regev, who riled up the May 23 pogromists by telling them that non-Jewish African asylum seekers are "a cancer in the body" of the nation – and later apologized after the violence, not to African asylum seekers, but to Israeli cancer victims, for comparing them to Africans – was appointed by Netanyahu to <a href="http://www.nrg.co.il/online/1/ART2/454/278.html">head the Knesset Interior Committee</a>, the very body that decides the fate of those asylum seekers.</p> <p>No salvation for African asylum seekers will come from Yesh Atid, the first-term secular party that surprised pundits by garnering the second-largest amount of seats in the governing coalition. The day after the May 23, 2012 anti-African pogrom, its leader Yair Lapid said that <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4233964,00.html">he supported deporting</a> the whole lot. Since entering the Knesset, he personally torpedoed an attempt to freeze a cruel new law that would <a href="http://www.haaretz.co.il/news/politics/1.1999804">strip asylum seekers of their hard-earned wages</a>, according to <em>Haaretz</em> reporter Jonathan Lis.</p> <p align="center"><strong>Popular racism in Israeli society</strong></p> <div><a href="http://972mag.com/three-eritreans-stabbed-in-south-tel-aviv-internet-cafe/52142/stab-wound/" rel="attachment wp-att-52138"><img title="Wounded Eritrean man after knife attack in South Tel Aviv Internet cafe July 31, 2012 (OrenZiv/Activestills)" src="http://972mag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/stab-wound.jpeg" alt="" class="reader-image-large"></a><div><p>Wounded Eritrean man after knife attack in South Tel Aviv Internet cafe July 31, 2012 (OrenZiv/Activestills)</p><small></small></div></div> <p>In March, an Israeli NGO released a report documenting racist statements by Members of Knesset and other public figures in Israel. The report found that espousing racism had become so commonplace in Israel that incidences of it had <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/racist-incitement-by-israeli-public-figures-doubled-in-2012-study-shows.premium-1.510230">nearly doubled</a> during the 2012 calendar year. As this toxic discourse trickles down to the Israeli public, the daily dehumanization of non-Jewish African asylum seekers passes almost without comment.</p> <p>When a kindergarten for the children of veteran Israelis planned a one-day outing to visit another kindergarten for the children of African asylum seekers, Israeli parents <a href="http://velvetunderground.co.il/?p=33180">flew into a rage</a>. Israeli expecting mothers <a href="http://bit.ly/mamahate">openly discussed strategies</a> for avoiding having to share a delivery room with pregnant African women. The director of a Tel Aviv hospital <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/medical-racism-israel-hospital-director-complains-too-many-african-babies-are">complained to the Knesset</a> that the African birthrate is <strong>too high</strong>.</p> <p>Africans are so hated in Israel that the word "Sudanese" has turned into a general curse word that can be applied to anyone, as can be seen <a href="http://www.davidsheen.com/racism/images/graffiti1.jpg">in this graffiti</a>, photographed on the streets of Tel Aviv: "Oz [Israeli man's name], you [damned] Sudanese". Racism is so widespread that Israeli civics teachers are actually <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/week-s-end/when-racist-expressions-are-no-longer-the-exception.premium-1.511305">afraid to even bring up the topic</a> of human rights in the classroom, fearful of the hateful responses they receive from students. My friend and colleague Lia Tarachansky documented this phenomenon in her recent video, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPzYExjz6Io">Israel's New Generation of Racists</a>.</p> <p>During this time period, between November 2012 and May 2013, there was at least one march through the African neighborhoods of Tel Aviv calling for the immediate deportation of all non-Jewish African asylum seekers every single month. Racist assaults on Africans are a regular occurrence in Israel at all times, but they are <a href="http://www.mako.co.il/news-channel2/Channel-2-Newscast/Article-29720eb3e4a6d31004.htm">especially prevalent</a> right after these racist rallies.</p> <p>Violent physical attacks on non-Jewish African asylum seekers are so socially acceptable in Israel that they can easily occur in the middle of a city street <a href="http://news.walla.co.il/?w=/90/2582532">in broad daylight</a>. On occasion, Jewish Africans – more commonly referred to as Ethiopian-Israelis – are misidentified as non-Jewish Africans and <a href="http://www.jpost.com/National-News/5-Israelis-nabbed-for-attacking-Africans-in-south-TA-309335">targeted for attack</a>. Women and children get no reprieve from the onslaught: those who seek protection at a Tel Aviv <a href="http://www.ardc-israel.org/en/article/violence-against-asylum-seekers-tel-aviv-continues">shelter for African women and children</a> are also assaulted, continually.</p> <p>In its annual report issued at the end of 2012, an Israeli NGO noted that incidences of violence directed at African asylum seekers <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/violence-against-migrants-in-israel-reaches-record-high-in-2012.premium-1.485120">reached a record high</a> in the last year. But the increasing attacks on African asylum seekers should come as no surprise, given the government's response to earlier incidences of racist violence. After an Jewish Israeli man firebombed eight African homes back in April, including one which housed a kindergarten for African children, the state <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israeli-suspect-in-attack-on-african-migrants-property-gets-off-with-light-plea-bargain.premium-1.490354">let him go</a> without any jail time, only requiring that he perform a few months of community service. Meanwhile, it <a href="http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=294812">deported the African man</a> who ran the kindergarten.</p> <p align="center"><strong>Smear Attacks and demonization </strong></p> <p>Israelis who advocate the immediate deportation of all African asylum seekers are able to generate the most amount of sympathy for their cause when reports emerge of a violent crime committed by an asylum seeker. Although the crime rate among asylum seekers <a href="http://www.davidsheen.com/racism/news1.jpg">remains lower</a> than the crime rate for veteran Israelis, racists capitalize on any negative incident to tar all asylum seekers as violent criminals.</p> <p></p> <p>In the closing days of 2012, an African asylum seeker was accused of <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4327026,00.html">viciously raping</a> an 80-year-old Israeli woman outside her home in Tel Aviv. The Strong Israel party quickly organized a rally demanding that all African asylum seekers be deported immediately. As my video of the event makes plain, on their way home from the rally, Strong Israel party activists accost every dark-skinned person they pass. The Africans hang their heads, powerless to reply.</p> <p></p> <p>Just two weeks later, another 80-year-old Israeli woman <a href="http://www.mako.co.il/news-law/crime/Article-30ee705ad5a3c31004.htm">was raped</a>, also in the Tel Aviv area. No public furor ensued and no angry marches were organized in response, because the alleged perpetrator was, like the victim, a Jewish Israeli. When Israel's rape culture is considered, exploiting the victims of sex attacks to advance the agenda of cleansing the country of non-Jewish Africans is revealed to be especially grotesque.</p> <p>Consider what has occurred in the last seven months alone: The <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/ex-police-chief-niso-shaham-faces-indictment-for-sex-crimes.premium-1.481245">Jerusalem chief of police</a> was indicted for sex crimes involving nine female officers. An <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/plea-bargain-reached-with-kiryat-malachi-mayor/">Israeli mayor</a> charged with "repeatedly raping a female subordinate over a lengthy period of time" was given no jail time, and instead <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/sex-offender-headlines-womens-day/">invited to attend</a> an event organized by the municipality marking "International Women's Day." And to Israel's "number one pimp," who <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/biggest-trafficker-of-women-in-israeli-history-finally-exposed.premium-1.501461">trafficked and severely beat</a> literally hundreds of women into sexual slavery, no punishment was meted out whatsoever.</p> <p>Consider the numbers: In 2011, the last year for which there are statistics, <a href="http://www.mehagrim.org/2012/12/blog-post_31.html">3,795</a> serious sexual crimes were committed in Israel. A study published in December found that a full 20 percent of Israeli men <a href="http://news.walla.co.il/?w=%2F90%2F2593667">admit to having sexually assaulted</a> at least one woman. Another study published in January found that more than 60 percent of Israeli men <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/study-61-of-men-don-t-see-forced-sex-with-acquaintance-as-rape-1.337637">do not consider</a> forcing a woman they are acquainted with to have sex against her will – to be rape.</p> <p>Sexual violence is a huge, huge problem in Israel and anyone who has committed a sex crime – white or black, Israeli or otherwise – must face justice. But any calls to deport or otherwise punish non-Jewish African asylum seekers based on the actions of criminals who share their ethnicity are the very definition of racial discrimination. This would be plainly understood as such if the same accusations were made against Jewish people living anywhere else in the world.</p> <p>As I have <a href="http://mondoweiss.net/2012/10/israeli-leader-of-movement-to-expel-african-asylum-seekers-driven-by-fear-of-miscegenation.html">previously documented</a>, one of the main reasons for so much of the Israeli hatred for Africans is the widespread opposition to consensual inter-racial romantic relationships between <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/twilight-zone/a-love-that-knows-no-boundaries.premium-1.473975">Israelis and Africans</a>. In March, two leading Israeli rabbis decreed that under Jewish law, it is even permissible to <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4351699,00.html">break the Sabbath</a> - number four of the Ten Commandments – when trying to break up mixed couples. In April, an Israeli NGO released a report comparing Israeli anti-miscegenation sentiment to the public demand for racial purity <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/magazine/love-in-the-time-of-racism-the-new-dangerous-low-in-the-campaign-to-stop-interracial-relationships.premium-1.517545">in Nazi Germany</a>.</p> <p align="center"><strong>Legal reprieve for asylum seekers</strong></p> <p>There have been small legal victories for African asylum seekers in the Israeli court system in recent months, achieved through the hard work of committed anti-racism activists. Though these court victories do not even come close to making up for all of the suffering Israel continues to heap on non-Jewish African asylum seekers, they do deserve mentioning.</p> <p>In April, Israel's High Court overturned a lower court ruling that torture suffered by asylum seekers <a href="http://news.walla.co.il/?w=/90/2634614">could not qualify</a> as a humanitarian reason justifying their release from detention. In May, a district court judge ruled that it is <a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4374805,00.html">inhumane to hold children</a> in a detention center indefinitely, and as a result, a handful of children and their mothers were released from holding. Also in May, Israel's High Court overturned a lower court ruling that increased criminal punishments meted out to African asylum seekers <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/supreme-court-african-workers-punishments-should-not-be-more-severe-than-israelis.premium-1.518701">solely because</a> they are African asylum seekers.</p> <p>Most significantly, in March, Israel's High Court <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-s-high-court-orders-state-to-justify-law-against-infiltrators.premium-1.508936">ordered the government</a> to justify its draconian Law for the Prevention of Infiltration, amended in January 2012. The law has provided the legal basis for Israel's incarceration without trial of thousands of African asylum seekers. In an extraordinary move, the <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/un-refugee-agency-petitions-high-court-to-overturn-8216-infiltration-law.premium-1.508765">United Nations</a> High Commissioner for Refugees applied to the court and called upon it to render the law unconstitutional. The state has yet to reply.</p> <div><a href="http://972mag.com/eritrean-woman-placed-in-administrative-detention-for-purchasing-fake-work-permit/65681/sudan-3/" rel="attachment wp-att-65687"><img title="A Sudanese woman shows her UNHCR Refugee card from Egypt during a refugee protest in front of the government's offices in center Tel Aviv October 14, 2012. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills)" src="http://972mag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/sudan.jpg" alt="" class="reader-image-large"></a><div><p>A Sudanese woman shows her UNHCR Refugee card from Egypt during a refugee protest in front of the government's offices in center Tel Aviv October 14, 2012. (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills)</p><small></small></div></div> <p>On the Winter Solstice of 2012, the ruling party in South Africa, the <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/south-africa-s-ruling-party-endorses-bds-campaign-against-israel.premium-1.486195">African National Congress</a>, voted to boycott, divest from, and slap sanctions on Israel. The text adopted by the ANC cites Israel's treatment of Palestinians as the impetus for the resolution, but another resolution passed at the same conference specifically states: "The ANC abhors the recent Israeli state-sponsored xenophobic attacks and deportation of Africans and requests that this matter should be escalated to the African Union."</p> <p>In April, even the <a href="http://www.jta.org/2013/04/22/news-opinion/united-states/state-dept-report-raps-israels-treatment-of-african-refugees">U.S. State Department</a> issued a public criticism of the Israeli government's treatment of non-Jewish African asylum seekers. Mondoweiss's Annie Robbins notes that the State Department's condemnation <a href="http://mondoweiss.net/2013/05/us-state-dept-echoes-david-sheens-documentation-of-israeli-racism-toward-refugees-as-infiltrators-disease-bearers.html">seems to mirror</a> the language of the <a href="http://bit.ly/afrefuge">report to the United Nations</a> Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on non-Jewish African asylum seekers, which I co-authored in January 2012.</p> <p align="center"><strong>Disinformation and propaganda campaigns</strong></p> <p>As word began to spread of its abominable treatment of African asylum seekers, Israel's propaganda machine kicked in. Well-oiled from decades of distributing disinformation about Palestinians, Israel's <em>hasbara</em> agents set themselves to the task of refurbishing Israel's international image. Not only did they deny that the government's treatment of Africa asylum seekers was racist; they actually had the audacity to claim that it was better than any other country in the world.</p> <p>In November, the spokesperson of the Israeli embassy to the United States took to the pages of <em>The Washington Post</em> to defend the government's record on African asylum seekers. Amazingly, Aaron Sagui's <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/israel-takes-care-of-asylum-seekers/2012/11/11/0126739e-29eb-11e2-aaa5-ac786110c486_story.html">letter to the editor</a> whitewashing Israel's attacks on Africans contains nearly as many lies as it does sentences. Despite all evidence to the contrary, Sagui has the chutzpah to claim that Israel provides "full health services and free education" for the asylum seekers, and that it "not only meets UN requisites… but exceeds them."</p> <p>The campaign to cover up Israel's persecution of African asylum seekers is not only fought by the Israeli government itself. The cause is also eagerly taken up by Zionist celebrities, such as British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, who had the gall to claim in February that Israel "<a href="http://bit.ly/saxsux">leads the world</a>" in accepting asylum seekers. In December, a group of Zionist intellectuals went one step further, demanding in a public petition that the rest of the world shoulder responsibility for Israel's non-Jewish African asylum seekers and <a href="http://jstandard.com/content/item/israel_and_the_african_refugees/25680">take them in</a>.</p> <p>At the same time, Israel sought to prevent the publication of any more factual information about African asylum seekers that might portray them in a positive light. In January, the Knesset Research and Information Center <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/employee-removed-from-knesset-research-post-for-left-wing-articles.premium-1.492097">fired Dr. Gilad Natan</a>, who at the request of Members of Knesset, had compiled multiple reports documenting crime rates among asylum seekers and a report comparing Israel's treatment of asylum seekers to their treatment in other countries.</p> <p>Natan cited official police statistics that showed asylum seekers commit far fewer crimes than native Israelis, not more. <a href="http://megafon-news.co.il/asys/archives/88378">His final report</a> found that in other countries, the vast majority of Sudanese and Eritreans are granted refugee status. It found that the number of asylum seekers in Israel is small compared to those other countries, even in proportion to Israel's small population. And it found that Israel's financial contribution to refugee settlement is infinitesimal compared to other developed nations.</p> <div><a href="http://972mag.com/a-year-in-review-anti-african-racism-and-asylum-seekers-in-israel/72381/border-2/" rel="attachment wp-att-72399"><img title="Border police patrolling south Tel Aviv, Israel, on May 28, 2012 (photo: Activestills)" src="http://972mag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/border.jpg" alt="" class="reader-image-large"></a><div><p>Border police patrolling south Tel Aviv, Israel. (photo: Activestills)</p><small></small></div></div> <p>These had become inconvenient truths for the Israeli government, which had come under increasing pressure to justify its cruel policies. After he was axed, Natan's official report comparing and contrasting the treatment of asylum seekers in different countries <a href="http://www.knesset.gov.il/mmm/data/pdf/m03109.pdf">was deleted</a> from the Knesset website altogether, as though it never existed. Out of sight, out of mind – see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.</p> <p>So while the truth is out of sight and mind, it remains evil, to the very core. Since Israel took over responsibility for reviewing refugee status requests from UNHCR, out of the 60,000 non-Jewish African asylum seekers living in Israel, Israel has approved only one single solitary application. And that one African woman that the State of Israel, in all of its magnanimity, has deigned to bequeath refugee status upon - <a href="http://972mag.com/israels-asylum-process-white-refugees-black-lies/66323/">is an albino</a>. Of the 1,400-plus refugee status requests made by asylum seekers held in Israeli detention centers, <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-admits-1-400-asylum-applications-still-pending-despite-vowing-swift-evaluation-of-requests.premium-1.526477">the state has not even processed even a single one</a>.</p> <p align="center"><strong>Diaspora Jewry's hypocritical silence</strong></p> <p>During the 12 months from June 2012 to May 2013, not one single mainstream American Jewish organization publicly criticized Israel's war on African asylum seekers. It wasn't that they refrained from criticizing Israel altogether, for they did not shy away from doing so over issues they felt strongly about. For example, in May, U.S. Jewish leaders publicly called upon the Israeli government to <a href="http://www.jta.org/2013/05/12/news-opinion/united-states/reconsider-charging-tourists-vat-jewish-leaders-tell-israel">cancel a proposed tourist tax</a>. It's that they just don't care about Israel's African asylum seekers.</p> <p>Just before Passover, all major American Jewish organizations signed off on a letter urging President Obama and Congress to <a href="http://www.jta.org/2013/03/24/news-opinion/united-states/array-of-jewish-groups-urges-faster-path-to-citizenship">make it easier for asylum-seekers</a> and undocumented migrants to become U.S. citizens. "American Jews know too well the impact of restrictive immigration policies, and we have seen how… the failure of national leaders to fix the broken immigration system has fueled racist, nativist, and extremist groups who blame immigrants for our country's problems," they wrote.</p> <p>If American Jews know too well the impact of restrictive immigration policies, it is because they remember that the United States and most other Western nations refused to accept Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazi Holocaust. And yet, as two Israeli immigration lawyers point out in +972 Magazine, those same Jewish refugees <a href="http://972mag.com/they-werent-real-refugees/68965/">would be sent back to the crematoria</a> today if they were judged by Israel's racist standards for accepting African asylum seekers.</p> <p>A tiny minority of Jewish anti-racism activists have issued passionate appeals to Jews around the world, pleading with them to urge Israel to accept its African asylum seekers. They couch their <a href="http://forward.com/articles/175632/israels-heartbreaking-policy-to-african-asylum-see/?p=all">calls for mercy</a> in the softest language possible, fearful of offending community leaders, who have near-zero tolerance for any criticism of Israel's actions, no matter how immoral. And yet their cries fall on deaf ears. A whole year after Israel's anti-African pogrom, big-box American Jewry maintains total silence over Israel's persecution of African asylum seekers.</p> <p>And so the persecution continues unabated.</p> <p><em>David Sheen is a writer and filmmaker born in Canada and based in Israel. His website is <a href="http://www.davidsheen.com/" target="_blank">www.davidsheen.com</a> and he tweets at @davidsheen.</em></p> <p style="font-style: italic; ">For additional original analysis and breaking news, visit +972 Magazine's <a target="_blank" href="http://www.facebook.com/972magazine">Facebook page</a> or follow us on <a target="_blank" href="http://twitter.com/972mag">Twitter</a>. Our newsletter features a comprehensive round-up of the week's events. Sign up <a target="_blank" href="http://972mag.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=0bd5641159488ecfed79ba6ca&id=f1fe821d25">here</a>.</p></div></div></div></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00901753654308155860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4238398526034464925.post-60359840398162896932013-05-29T09:16:00.000-04:002013-05-29T09:17:01.662-04:00U.S. Reforms Could Slash African Immigration Levels<div><div class="original-url"><a href="http://www.international.to/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8250:us-reforms-could-slash-african-immigration-levels&catid=268:inter-press-service&Itemid=377">http://www.international.to/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8250:us-reforms-could-slash-african-immigration-levels&catid=268:inter-press-service&Itemid=377</a><br><br></div><div id="article"> <!-- This node will contain a number of 'page' class divs. --> <div class="page" style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; "><h1 class="title">U.S. Reforms Could Slash African Immigration Levels</h1><div> <span> Tuesday, 07 May 2013 09:51 </span> <span> Carey L. Biron </span> <a href="/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8250:us-reforms-could-slash-african-immigration-levels&catid=268:inter-press-service&Itemid=377#comments">1 Comments</a> </div><img src="http://international.to/images/stories/2012/3/obama.jpg" mce_src="/images/stories/2012/3/obama.jpg" alt="" width="128">WASHINGTON, May 06 (IPS) - Advocates for the African diaspora in the United States have stepped up a campaign to urge the U.S. Congress not to end a longstanding visa programme aimed at boosting immigration from "underrepresented countries".The programme, known as the diversity visa lottery, has in recent years been sharply tilted towards African immigration. Since 2008, immigrants from African countries have made up nearly half of the 55,000 randomly awarded U.S. work visas annually awarded.<br> <br> Yet under a landmark bipartisan proposal to overhaul the U.S. immigration system, released in mid-April and currently being debated in the U.S. Senate, the so-called DV lottery would be eliminated (see Section 2303 of the draft bill). Instead, it would be replaced with "merit-based" visas aimed at opening U.S doors to higher-skilled workers, particularly in the science, technology and engineering fields.<br> <br> If passed, the provisions on the DV lottery would take effect in October 2014.<br> <br> "We are concerned that the Senate's plan to eliminate the DV lottery will stem the future flow of immigration from African countries and negatively impact the future make-up of America," the Cameroon American Council (CAC), a Washington-based advocacy group, said Monday in a statement.<br> <br> "The DV lottery is built upon foundational, democratic and egalitarian principles that strengthen America. These principles advance equal opportunity, attracts entrepreneurs and visionaries who contribute immensely to the American small business sector, and improves the quality of our social, economic, political and cultural life."<br> <br> The DV programme was created in 1990 with the aim of rectifying a bias within U.S. immigration laws against certain countries. The lottery is open to citizens of countries where immigration to the United States totalled less than 50,000 over the preceding half-decade, and it closes again once those levels hit a certain level.<br> <br> As such, while high-immigration countries such as Mexico, the Philippines or China have never been allowed to enter the DV lottery, the programme has allowed in a broad spectrum of immigrants from smaller or lesser-represented countries. The representation from Africa has been particularly significant.<br> <br> Since 2010, for instance, just three percent of Asians became U.S. permanent residents through the DV lottery, while more than 20 percent of Africans did so. The lottery thus became the third most important avenue to U.S. residency for Africans, behind asylum claims and family reunification.<br> <br> Indeed, family reunification made up nearly half of U.S. residency routes for Africans in the past three years, yet this route too is not included in the current Senate bill. Instead, the current bill focuses on bringing in higher-skilled workers.<br> <br> "Lawmakers say the new proposal won't put various communities at a disadvantage, because new visas will be made for them – but they've left Africans out," Yves Bouele, an advocate with the Cameroon American Council, told IPS.<br> <br> "They say everybody is going to be well served with these new provisions, and that might be true, but that definitely doesn't look to be the case for Africans. If the DV lottery is eliminated, we need to ensure that new provisions will continue to serve these African communities, which are really underserved."<br> <br> Conservative target<br> <br> "The DV lottery has had the effect of lifting families out of poverty; provided opportunities to the affected families; and provided a talent pool for the U.S. economy," the CAC suggests. "It has been a very successful foreign policy, civil rights achievement and national security tool."<br> <br> Such claims notwithstanding, Republican members of Congress have been aiming at dismantling the diversity visa programme for years. Indeed, Bouele says that the DV lottery has become a make-or-break issue for the Senate's proposal.<br> <br> "Basically, the DV lottery had to go in order to make sure the Republicans supported the bill," he notes.<br> <br> "And now people worry that if we insist on the lottery the Republicans will back out. Why exactly they want to take this out so bad, I'm not sure. We have a lot of data to prove how good the African immigrant population has been for the United States."<br> <br> Most recently, the Republican-held House of Representatives passed a bill in November that would have increased the number of high-skilled immigrant visas while eliminating the DV lottery – exactly as the new Senate proposal would do.<br> <br> At the time, President Barack Obama threatened to veto the bill, calling it a "narrowly tailored proposal". While the president has not discussed the DV lottery since the Senate unveiled the new proposal, other Congressional democrats have expressed their concerns.<br> <br> "I am truly disappointed that the bipartisan proposal eliminates the Diversity Visa Program that provides for the future flow of diverse immigrant groups from underrepresented countries to have a real chance of obtaining the American Dream," Yvette Clarke, a member of both the House of Representatives and the Congressional Black Caucus, said in a statement.<br> <br> "Although assurances have been made that the new 'Merit Based Point System' would account for diversity, my concern is that it isn't robust or sustainable enough to adequately protect the future flow of racially and socioeconomically diverse immigrant populations."<br> <br> Diversity compromise<br> <br> Still, the new immigration reform proposal is a massive piece of legislation, and if it were to pass it would be the largest such overhaul since the mid-1980s. Further, while the bill is coming under increased fire from conservatives, it has received notably strong bipartisan support from both lawmakers and the U.S. public.<br> <br> Given the polarised and politicised nature of immigration policy in the United States, the Senate's bill has been widely referred to as strong though compromise legislation. In this context, many appear willing to offer concessions in order to get the legislation through to become law.<br> <br> "This isn't one of our favourite elements of the new proposal, as we think there's real value in the diversity visa system – it has brought in people who otherwise wouldn't have been able to access the U.S.," Crystal Williams, the executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told IPS.<br> <br> "But taken holistically, the number of things that the bill does that are of great benefit has to be weighed against the sacrifice of the DV lottery. Right now, we're willing to accept that trade-off, although reluctantly."<br> <br> Further, Williams notes that some of the context around the discussion of diversity in the United States has evolved over the past two decades.<br> <br> <img src="http://international.to/images/stories/0413/ips.png" mce_src="/images/stories/0413/ips.png" alt="" width="128">"One of the reasons that this is a politically viable bill is because diversity has become a driving factor right now," she says. "Today, there is a recognition that any party that wants to stay politically viable has to understand that diversity."</div></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00901753654308155860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4238398526034464925.post-18285804724308997422013-05-22T07:46:00.001-04:002013-05-22T07:46:22.813-04:00The health of the African and Caribbean immigrant community<div></div><div><div class="original-url"><a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/public_health/The-health-of-the-African-and-Caribbean-immigrant-community.html">http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/public_health/The-health-of-the-African-and-Caribbean-immigrant-community.html</a><br><br></div><div id="article" style="-webkit-hyphens: auto; -webkit-locale: en; "> <!-- This node will contain a number of 'page' class divs. --> <div class="page" style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.4; "><h1 class="title">The health of the African and Caribbean immigrant community</h1><p><em>Today we have another important and interesting contribution to our ongoing </em><span><a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/public_health/Race-and-health-in-Philadelphia-.html"><em>series on race and health in Philadelphia</em></a></span><em>. </em><em><strong>Oni Richards-Waritay</strong></em><em>, executive director of the </em><span><a href="http://www.afaho.net/"><em>African Family Health Organization</em></a></span><em> (AFAHO) discusses how cultural and linguistic barriers can lead to poor health outcomes.</em></p> <p><em>-- Michael Yudell</em></p> <p><em> </em></p> <p><span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/health/the-health-toll-of-immigration.html?pagewanted=all">Research indicates that the health of immigrants</a></span> to the United States worsens the longer they are here. For example, many members of Philadelphia's African and Caribbean immigrant and refugee community are healthier than other residents upon arrival in the U.S. But their health deteriorates the longer they stay here.</p> <p>How is this possible in a nation that is supposed to have the best healthcare in the world?</p> <p>Part of the answer is that as newcomers assimilate, they adopt the unhealthy dietary and physical activity habits of longtime residents. The other part is that <span><a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/health/20130519_Check_Up__Social_forces_drive_disparity_in_health_outcomes.html">quality healthcare is not accessible to everyone</a></span>, particularly those who are low-income, Limited English Proficient, have no health insurance and live in "health deserts." This inevitably leads to many being forced to use emergency rooms as a source of primary care; a lose-lose situation for both the patient and the over burdened health system.</p> <p>The <span><a href="http://www.africancaribbeanaffairs.org/">Mayor's Commission on African and Caribbean Immigrant Affairs</a></span> reports that there are nearly 60,000 African and Caribbean immigrants and refugees in the city. At the African Family Health Organization, which <span><a href="http://www.afaho.net/health-needs/">provides services</a></span> to nearly 900 people a year from 30 countries, we constantly witness the challenges that this population faces in accessing quality health and human services.</p> <p>Barriers to healthcare as well as low-quality healthcare contribute to health disparities and poor health outcomes in immigrant and refugee communities. Though access to Western medicine was limited for some in their home countries, they had access to fresh foods; opportunities for frequent outdoor activities; and traditional medicines, which focused on prevention. Prevention plays a critical role in improving health, yet it is rarely the focus of medical care in the American system, partly due to the lack of adequate time that health providers have available to spend with each patient.</p> <p>Doctor office visits are sometimes compared to "speed dating," even for those immigrants and refugees who have a good grasp of the English language, health insurance, and are able to successfully navigate the often complex healthcare system. Many tell us that, despite going to the same provider for a year or more, they have yet to develop a rapport that encourages meaningful dialogue due to the rushed and impersonal nature of time spent with their doctors. And now that everything is online, health providers seem to spend more time looking at their computers, as they quickly type in answers to their patients' questions, than with the people sitting across from them. This can be intimidating and isolating for anybody; for an immigrant or refugee, it might justify claims that providers now are more concerned with curing disease using medication rather than healing and preventing it in the first place.</p> <p>Imagine for a moment that you are not fluent in English; already have some distrust of the health system; have no health insurance; are not culturally familiar with Western medicine, and not very literate. What is the likelihood that your experience with a medical provider will be positive and effective? For many, the chances are slim. That's why one of the services our organization offers is a medical escort to help our clients get through some of their language, culture, and navigation barriers – a difficult task to accomplish when using only a telephone interpreter.</p> <p>Providers often don't get that interpretation is not just linguistic, it is also cultural. When patients shake their head to indicate "yes," for example, that does not necessarily mean that they understand what's being said; it might simply mean that they're doing what they <em>think</em> they should be doing. Many immigrants and refugees revere medical providers and see them as "all knowing." As a result, they might blindly follow instructions without raising the kind of questions that educated people who grew up here would instinctively ask.</p> <p>And when providers do not truly understand their patients, they miss critical opportunities to intervene before a serious condition develops. A typical example is the prevalence of Hepatitis B in African immigrant communities. A provider who is unfamiliar with this pattern might not screen for the virus, which can eventually lead to liver cancer if left untreated. And using body-mass index (BMI) to discuss obesity in African or Caribbean women is often ineffective; BMI at this point may be a household term in the United States but it is an alien concept in many parts of the world, where body types also may not match what the tool is intended to measure to identify unhealthy proportions.</p> <p>Health care in the U.S. <em>can</em> be among the best in the world, and nowhere more so than in Philadelphia, with its concentration of top academic medical centers. But it often serves immigrants and refugees poorly, just at the time when their adoption of an unhealthy Western lifestyle is worsening their health. It is imperative that the health-care system be changed to ensure quality care for all, regardless of insurance, education, ethnicity or linguistic capabilities. <span><a href="http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/reports/2008/11/13%20immigration%20singer/1113_immigration_singer.pdf">The Brookings Institution reports</a></span> that there are nearly 500,000 foreign-born residents in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. As the region continues to become more diverse, it is important that providers understand the needs of the communities they serve -- and make a concerted effort to become culturally competent and sensitive if reducing health disparities and improving health outcomes is their goal.</p> <hr> <p>Read more about <a href="http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/public_health/">The Public's Health</a>.</p> </div></div></div><div><br></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00901753654308155860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4238398526034464925.post-27919068942415809842013-05-15T08:33:00.001-04:002013-05-15T08:33:40.360-04:00Post-Racial: Darker Skin On White People Leads To Positive Bias For Darker Skin<div><div class="original-url"><a href="http://www.science20.com/">http://www.science20.com/</a><br><br></div><div id="article"> <!-- This node will contain a number of 'page' class divs. --> <div class="page" style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; "><h1 class="title">Post-Racial: Darker Skin On White People Leads To Positive Bias For Darker Skin</h1> <p>The Rubber Hand illusion never fails to teach us new things - not just about neuroscience, but also about culture.<br><br> If you are not familiar with the Rubber Hand illusion, it shows that the combination of seeing a touch on a rubber hand and feeing a touch on your own creates the illusion that the fake hand is now part of your body. In a new paper, scholars did that; they asked participants to look at a fake hand being touched, while at the same time the experimenter touched the participants' own hand, hidden out of view.<br><br> But there was a twist. The paper authors were testing whether people can experience a hand of a different skin color and whether this would change possible racial biases. Well, obviously color shouldn't matter if rubber is convincing but the goal was to see if a rubber hand of a different color caused people to be less biased.<br><br> Maybe it does. Using Caucasian participants, the scientists tested their implicit attitudes towards people with dark skin before using a dark-skinned rubber hand to make them feel as if this was their own hand. They then tested their racial attitudes again after the experiment. They found that when white Caucasians are under the illusion that they have dark skin, their racial bias changes - in a positive way. Yes, they were all a little racist, even if they had never done anything racist. That is the beauty of things like the <a href="http://www.science20.com/search/apachesolr_search/%22Implicit%20Association%20Test%22" target="_blank">Implicit Association Test</a>. 100% of people will be what psychologists need them to be in order for them to show people how they can be less of it.</p> <p>The results showed that the more intense the participants' illusion of owning the dark-skinned rubber hand, the more positive their racial attitudes became. When people got darker skin, they became more positive about people with darker skin. We need to poll the folks at TMZ and find out how many of these tests the Kardashian family took. <br><br> <img src="http://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S0010027713000772-gr1.jpg" alt="" class="reader-image-large"><br><em>Fig. 1. (A) Experimental set-up of the rubber hand illusion. The participant observed a rubber hand being touched with a paintbrush, whilst their own hand was stimulated in the same manner. (B) The ownership questionnaire, measuring illusory ownership over the rubber hand. Agreement was rated on a 7-point Likert scale. Credit and link: <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010027713000772" target="_blank">Cognition</a></em></p> <p>"This study has important implications for changing and reducing negative racial attitudes," said researcher Lara Maister from the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway University. "It comes down to a perceived similarity between white and dark skin. The illusion creates an overlap, which in turn helps to reduce negative attitudes because participants see less difference between themselves and those with dark skin." </p> <p>Dr. Manos Tsakiris, Reader in Neuropsychology at Royal Holloway and who led the research and <span>had a similar paper (<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2012.04.011" title="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2012.04.011">http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2012.04.011</a>) on the topic last year</span>, said, "Often formed at an early age, negative racial attitudes are thought to remain relatively stable throughout adulthood. Our results show that we can positively alter them by understanding how the brain is processing sensory information from our bodies and that of others. It will be interesting to replicate the effect with different social groups and see if we can generalise these findings outside of a laboratory setting." </p> <br> <p>Citation: Lara Maister, Natalie Sebanz, Günther Knoblich, Manos Tsakiris, 'Experiencing ownership over a dark-skinned body reduces implicit racial bias', Cognition, Volume 128, Issue 2, August 2013, Pages 170-178 <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2013.04.002">http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2013.04.002</a></p></div></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00901753654308155860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4238398526034464925.post-59735839094855598662013-04-04T11:06:00.001-04:002013-04-04T11:06:56.010-04:00The Charlotte Post - Color of getting to America<a href="http://www.thecharlottepost.com/index.php?src=news&srctype=detail&category=News&refno=5512">http://www.thecharlottepost.com/index.php?src=news&srctype=detail&category=News&refno=5512</a>
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<br>Color of getting to America
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<br>After years of non-action and adverse action from differing political groups, persuasions and governmental entities, the issue of immigration almost immediately gained more serious national attention following the re-election of President Barack Obama.
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<br>While most people think primarily of Hispanics and Asians when the topic of immigration comes up, there are number of people of African descent that fall into the immigrant population as well.
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<br>"Blacks only make up around 10 percent of the immigrant population," said Opal Tometi of the Black Alliance, citing United States Department of Immigration statistics. "Yet, blacks are five times more likely to be detained or deported."
<br>The immigration issue has seen many changes and developments over the years, but it has typically been driven by a key interest—American corporate and business needs.
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<br>Corporations have always sought to exploit cheap labor while American laborers have sought better wages as immigrants have challenged them for jobs.
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<br>Race and ethnicity have often been a bedrock component of American immigration, including the slave trade, the Chinese railroad workers, and Hispanics in agriculture. Laws tended to change once usefulness has been absorbed or because of challenges.
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<br>In 1790, Congress passed a law allowing the naturalization of free White persons, a racial requirement for American citizenship, which remained on the books until 1952. In 1907, the U.S. and Japan entered into a diplomatic agreement—not bound by law, yet adhered to—where Japan agreed to only emigrate educated or business-engaged Japanese, and Japan would also withhold skilled and unskilled laborers, along with those affected by mental or physical disabilities.
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<br>President Theodore Roosevelt agreed to desegregate California schools in exchange. This reversed a practice where Asians in Northern California were educated separately from the larger student population much as Blacks were in the South.
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<br>The Immigration Act of 1917 added a literacy test and designated Asia as a barred zone, allowing only Japanese and Philippine immigrants. A barred zone limits the number people allowed to come into the U.S. from a certain area.
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<br>Race was further embedded in immigration law in 1882 when Chinese were prevented from entry into the U.S. by the Chinese Exclusion Act. The act was repealed in 1943 during World War II as the nation warred against the Germans and Japanese because, some historians say, Chinese were needed for military intelligence against Japan.
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<br>At one time, American immigration was limited to a certain number of people per year pursuant to federal law, and was considered as enforcement and aid to American culture, democracy, national defense and security.
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<br>It was not until the Immigration Act of 1965, which was encouraged and only made possible by the civil rights movement and the ensuing Voting Rights Act of 1965, that race-based immigration admission was replaced by criteria that involved skills, profession or by family relation to U.S. citizens.
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<br>Currently, the White House and the Senate Bipartisan Committee on Immigration Reform have both drafted plans that include an eventual pathway to permanent citizenship for the thousands of people who entered the U.S. illegally, but they don't yet agree on details. Both do, however, agree that applicants pay fines, taxes, wait in line behind current green-card applicants, and learn to speak English.
<br>Many hard line Republicans, however, have been less willing to consider permanent citizenship.
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<br>The Bipartisan Policy Center, a quasi-outside governmental advisory group (a think tank that advocates for bipartisan solutions to government problems) has enlisted Republicans Condoleezza Rice, former U.S. Secretary of State and former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, to team with Democrats including Henry Cisneros, former HUD secretary and former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell.
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<br>The committee is chaired by Rebecca Talent, former chief of staff to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). This bipartisan panel will also look at issues such as increased border enforcement, issuance of green cards for students that graduate with degrees in science and math in effort to draft further detailed proposals on which both parties can agree. It will forward recommendations to Congress and the president.
<br>Black immigrants largely have not been mentioned in the immigration discussion, because the emphasis has been on immigrants of Hispanic and Asian heritage.
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<br>Many obvious and obscure issues surround immigration reform that include the rights of dreamers (the American-born children of illegal immigrants) and farm workers, who make up a large portion of the immigrant population. Other issues surround students who may or may not be in America legally, some who arrived with their parent or parents as babies or small children, some who came on their own as minors, and those who are in America on temporary status.
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<br>"The time for immigration reform is long overdue, and we applaud the president . . . for proposing a common sense, compassionate, comprehensive immigration reform plan that provides a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants who currently reside in the United States," said American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten in a statement. "The president's blueprint for reform and the U.S. Senate bipartisan framework shows an understanding that our nation has always been enriched by immigrants and strengthened by the diversity they bring. His proposal strengthens our borders, ensures (that) immigrant children can go to school without fear, keeps families together, and promotes safe and secure jobs for all workers. His continued support of the Dream Act gives dreamers the chance to dream by giving hard-working students who play by the rules an opportunity to pursue a college degree."
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<br>While the subset of issues regarding immigrant children has many different facets, dreamers have a good outlook because most Americans are empathetic to children and the Dreamer cause. Some other groups have not received the same attention or empathy.
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<br>"The president's immigration reform proposal contained no surprises," said Black Alliance for Just Immigration Executive Director Gerald Lenoir in a statement. "President Obama proposed a broad legalization program with few details. It is very positive that he includes agricultural workers in the legalization program, but it is disappointing that he made no mention of providing permanent legal status to the thousand(s) of immigrants who have Temporary Protected Status and Deferred Enforcement Departure Status. It is also a concern that the president wants undocumented immigrants who qualify to go to the back of the line, which means that the legalization process will take years and years. And those deemed criminals will be left out altogether."
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<br>"The president also promised to continue down the path of more militarization of the border that has caused a record number of deaths in the desert," he continued, "and more detentions and deportations that have split families apart and caused great hardships. This is unacceptable. The president's proposal fails to address the root causes of migrants, like the North American Free Trade Agreement, which has allowed U.S. corporate farmers to dump low-cost corn and other agricultural products into the Mexican economy, forcing millions of Mexican farmers who cannot compete to leave their farms and migrate to the United States."
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<br>"The Black Alliance for Just Immigration and its partner organizations in the Black Immigration Network and the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights will fight for a fairer and more just immigration policy that prioritizes human rights above discriminatory enforcement policies and that places the highest premium on family reunification and a much broader legalization program," Lenoir concluded.
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<br>Not all of the organizational members of the BIN totally agree with Lenoir and BAJI. For the sake of clarity and also in fairness, NAFTA was instituted under former President Bill Clinton, and although controversial and contested, many credit the agreement in part with aiding the country's ability to recover from the economic downturn and near recession left by the former President Bush that Clinton succeeded.
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<br>Tometi is the network coordinator of the BIN steering committee and also works with Black Alliance.org. She believes that the growth of immigrant detention has been influenced by federal enforcement activities that historically target people of African descent.
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<br>"The fact is that black immigrants make up 10 percent of the foreign-born population," Tometi said.
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<br>"African immigrants are the most highly educated of all immigrant groups in the U.S., yet black migrants in general face unprecedented adversity and are often forgotten in the immigration debate.
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<br>What's worse (is) black immigrants who are out of status (do not have current green cards, work visas or other similar documentation) are being detained and overrepresented in immigration detention despite their small numbers in the larger population.
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<br>"This mirrors the similar type of overrepresentation of African Americans in the criminal justice system. The impact of racial profiling across the board impacts all Black communities regardless of where they were born. And this is very pronounced in a city like New York City where Jamaicans, Haitians and Dominicans have the highest deportation numbers. This ultimately means thousands of families being torn apart and fragmented communities."
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<br>"The notion that we need to increase border security is rooted in fear," Tometi continued. "As a person originally from Arizona who lived in Tucson for some years, I know that increased border patrol is not what is needed. There are several reports that show the increased militarization of the border has led to hundreds of deaths over the years as well as unprecedented levels of violence in border towns.
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<br>People there feel as though the border patrol has invaded their towns. Residents are at risk of being profiled every day just because of how they look or their accent. Families who have had roots in these areas for generations are now being subjected to harassment because they all of a sudden don't look 'American.'
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<br>"Additionally, increased border security doesn't just include the U.S./Mexico border," Tometi continued.
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<br>"It includes any port of entry to the U.S. This means airports, all states that are along any coast, and the U.S.-Canadian border. This type of escalation in enforcement has implications (for) U.S. Citizens and migrants alike. We see the Congressional Black Caucus as major advocates for just immigration reform.
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<br>CBC members are in tune with their members and know that comprehensive immigration reform will impact black immigrant and African American constituencies.
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<br>"Members know about the types of injustice (that) black immigrants face. It's great to see the visionary leadership that is coming from CBC members such as Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Representative Karen Bass, Representative Hakeem Jeffries, and Representative John Conyers. They get the issues and have listened to members of the Black Immigration Network from throughout the country."
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<br>"Our network is hopeful that President Obama will become more in touch with his own family's story of migration and be found on the right side of history," she continued further. "More than comprehensive immigration reform, I want just immigration reform. This means full citizenship for all of us. Whether (that means) prioritizing temporary status holders to keeping black immigrant families (together), eliminating the practice of mass incarceration through enforcement, or promoting economic justice, sensible immigration reform is ultimately about a citizenship that goes beyond legal status. It reflects a people's right to pursue the universal ideals of happiness and freedom, regardless of how people have arrived."
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<br>Law enforcement organizations such as the FBI, Drug Enforcement Agency and U.S. Customs say residents along the U.S./Mexican border face increased danger posed by the growing influx of drug trafficking. Drug cartels have become larger and typically employ illegal emigrants from Mexico and others to transport drugs. Further danger is prevalent because cartels also widely add to the steady army of pedestrian border crossings by either forcing or paying otherwise harmless border crossers (known as mules) to carry drugs.
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<br>Another illegal element is that of human traffickers. This practice is also common with Asian immigrants.
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<br>The United Farm Workers has a large stake in any legislation that is proposed because it mostly, if not solely, represents the largely populated migrant farm workers in America, who comprise a major portion of immigrants, especially in California and the Southwestern states. UFW President Arturo S. Rodriguez joined President Obama at Del Sol High School in Las Vegas, Nev., on Jan. 29, as the president laid out his proposed plan for immigration reform.
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<br>"We take heart from three commitments firmly articulated by President Obama in his address," Rodriguez said in a statement. "Now is the time to move swiftly forward on a new immigration process in reality and not just preachment, a process that brings long-overdue recognition to hard-working, tax-paying immigrants whose hard labor and sacrifice feed all of America and much of the world."
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<br>"We are cheered by the president's insistence on a clear and unequivocal road map to citizenship," he continued. "We join President Obama in being encouraged by the bipartisan framework outlined by the senators. We also applaud the president's vow that if Congress does not act in short order, he will move forward with his own bill based on the principles he has outlined, and insist on a vote."
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<br>Bruce Mirken of the Greenlining Institute was soberly optimistic, but says "the devil is in the details. There are a few basic principles that we think are essential," he said. "One of them is that there has to be a true path to citizenship. Another is that there really has to be an emphasis on family reunification. The rules now can force families to be separated for years before they can be reunited and safely in the country. We are very skeptical about the suggestions for a guest worker program, which basically sets up a group of second-class citizens—workers who are really dependent on the employers who brought them here and essentially have no legal bargaining power or legal right to organize," said Mirken. "This is a situation that is bad for them and bad for workers in general."
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<br>"There is a whole range of issues that need to be dealt with in a humane way," Mirken concluded. "I think (that) it's safe to say that there will be a segment of business people who will always try to get as much work out of people for as little as they can, and give workers as few rights as they can. They and their pet politicians will try to use this as they will other issues, anti-union efforts, etc., to try to tilt the playing fields in their direction. Just calling something comprehensive immigration reform doesn't necessarily make it a good deal. It's got to give people some dignity."Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00901753654308155860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4238398526034464925.post-21840091705108610642013-04-04T10:56:00.001-04:002013-04-04T10:56:32.855-04:00Georgia High School Students Fight Against Segregated Prom<a href="http://www.inquisitr.com/603369/georgia-high-school-students-fight-against-segregated-prom/">http://www.inquisitr.com/603369/georgia-high-school-students-fight-against-segregated-prom/</a>
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<br>Georgia High School Students Fight Against Segregated Prom
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<br>Students at a high school in Georgia are trying to put an end to a tradition of a segregated prom, an event so entrenched in the small community that police have even led away biracial students from the whites only dance.
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<br>The segregated prom has been a tradition at Wilcox County High School, with separate dances for each race for as long as people can remember. Homecoming at the school has normally been segregated as well, with different courts for each race.
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<br>Though the school nixed the segregated courts at this year's homecoming — allowing a black student to be elected homecoming queen — there were still two separate dances.
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<br>"I felt like there had to be a change," said Quanesha Wallace, a student at the high school and this year's homecoming queen. "For me to be a black person and the king to be a white person, I felt like why can't we come together."
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<br>Wallace and a group of friends are part of a movement to end the segregated prom. They have planned only one dance, called the "Integrated Prom," and invited everyone.
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<br>The idea hasn't gone over too well with some people. Some students ripped down signs for the Integrated Prom. Last year, when a biracial student tried to attend the whites only prom, police came to turn the student away.
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<br>The students committed to ending the segregated proms remain undeterred. They started a Facebook page and are running fundraisers to pay for the Integrated Prom.
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<br>"We realize were making history. Because this has never happened before. So for something like this to come about where we can make a difference or change, it's gonna be valuable to the community. It's really exciting," said Mareshia Rucker.
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<br>"I see black, white proms separate gone. I think from this point on they will have an integrated prom," added Toni Rucker.
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<br>The effort to end the segregated proms seems to be working. About 50 students have already bought tickets to the Integrated Prom.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00901753654308155860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4238398526034464925.post-34775991172796611512013-04-03T18:28:00.001-04:002013-04-03T18:28:39.503-04:00Immigration Reform in the US: Taking racism out of the closet<a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/03/2013329115414268219.html">http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/03/2013329115414268219.html</a>
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<br>Immigration Reform in the US: Taking racism out of the closet
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<br>It is with no surprise that immigration reform and it's meaning has polarised communities in the United States, confounded policy makers and become a political football for the left and right.
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<br>One of the main reasons why this issue has become so contentious is the racial and ethnic make-up of recent entrants to the country, both documented and undocumented. While race fuels the nativists concerns with border security and the undocumented overwhelming governmental services, the racial elements of those concerns are not being acknowledged. Rather, they are masked in polite, neutral terms around issues of concern for the law and the expense of governmental services and everyone goes along with the charade. Yet, for undocumented people, and even those with legal residency who are from countries from the global south, the reality of race is all too real in their daily lives and the way in which public policy is enforced. This is even truer for populations not normally thought of as being part of the immigration debate in the US-migrants who are phenotypically seen as "Black" within the US.
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<br>There are over 150 million people that are living either permanently or temporarily outside their countries of origin. The United States, according to the United States Census Bureau, has nearly 40 million foreign-born residents, which is roughly 13 percent of the total US population. Many immigrants to the US are migrant workers who are engaged or have been engaged in a paid activity in the US and members of their families. Forced to migrate for several reasons, including because of the devastation of neoliberal policies, thousands end up in detention facilities, some after having lived, worked and formed families in the country for several years. Despite being greatly outnumbered by non-African descendent immigrants, according to Centre for American Progress, Black immigrants are estimated to represent over 3 million of the estimated 40 million immigrants currently estimated to be in the United States.
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<br>Despite being outnumbered by non-black Latinos and Asian immigrants, in urban cities such as New York, Boston and Miami more than a quarter of their black population is foreign born, and they with their African American counterparts are the largest groups represented in the criminal justice system.
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<br>Xenophobia and Immigration
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<br>Very similar to their non-black counterparts, migration for black immigrants is usually a combination of issues, mostly due to economic and political forces in their countries of origin, many come seeking educational and employment opportunities, as well as there are some cases of individuals looking for safety. There is a large majority of black immigrants that come for family reunification and are granted residency based on the legalities of family reunification.
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<br>As an example we have, the situation facing Calvin James, which is not atypical. An excerpt from the Colorlines website illustrates his situation:
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<br>"Calvin James immigrated to Queens, New York, when he was 12 to follow his mother. At 17, James dropped out of high school. To make some money, James and his older brother tried fixing electronics, but that did not bring in enough cash. The brothers began selling marijuana in city parks. In 1992, James was arrested and spent 18 months in jail for possession and dealing of marijuana. James was released from prison in 1994 and brought to an immigration centre in Manhattan, where he was told that as an immigrant who had committed a crime, he was at risk of deportation. Several years ago order of deportation was issued for James without his being present and without legal counsel."
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<br>James story gets little or no coverage as well as stories like his in mainstream, independent or even in the alternative press. The fact is that in terms of a domestic discussion about immigration, black immigrants issues are also for the most part invisible in the so-called immigrant rights movement, despite the labelling of many as racial justice organisations. Some could say that black immigrant issues go into the fold of a raceless immigrant rights movement since, it could also be said that race and racism are embedded into the fabric of immigration, or we could assume that this is another example of how African descendants continue to be invisible from issues that are at a national scope level, and that their specific and particular realities need to be sacrificed for the benefit of the 'majority'.
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<br>Race as National Policy for Immigration Enforcement
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<br>From policies that target migrants based on who looks or seems to belong in society and who does not, despite the citizenship or residency status of the individual or groups, to the banning of ethnic studies at high schools and university centres by state legislations, are all manifestations of how immigration has become a discussion of who belongs vs. who does not belong in US society and, indeed, what constitutes a US national identity.
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<br>It is this debate that has created an environment in which repression based on race is tolerated and even supported by government programs. The acceptance of racial profiling is but one graphic example.
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<br>Racial profiling happens in the United States when there is a systemic targeting of people around searches, stops or investigation on the basis of that person's race, national origin or ethnicity. Some examples of documented racial profiling include the commonly used term 'driving while black', which is when police can use race to determine which drivers to stop for presumed traffic violations. But now with the focus on Latino immigration, driving "while brown" has become another marker for racial profiling.
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<br>Over the past decade, immigration enforcement measures by national, state and local governments have included blatant use of racial profiling with the result being an dramatic increase in criminal prosecutions, raids at worksites, checkpoints at roadblocks and military like incursions into communities identified as "immigrant. In the past four years, under the administration of President Barack Obama, the US has broken every record for deportations with an unprecedented 409,849 deportations occurring in 2012 alone. The Obama administration has also expanded partnerships that enable and condone the stopping of individuals by local police to check for immigration status and identification, such as Secure Communities, 287(g), and the Criminal Alien Program. And these programs are not cheap, the federal government spent close to $18 billion dollars on immigration enforcement last year alone. There are also programs such as Operation Streamline that target women, men and children and allow them to be detained in private detention centres for a year or more.
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<br>Xenophobia and racism are alive and well through the immigration system, and it does affect both blacks and non blacks, yet the impact that invisibility that black immigrants because of their race, puts them in a doubly precarious situation. While we very commonly see and hear about immigration being a very 'Latino' issue around immigration, including detention and deportation, we rarely see and hear the realities that black immigrants and their families face in a criminal justice system in where blacks historically have been and continue being disproportionately represented.
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<br>While xenophobia and racism are driving factors in the debates around immigration reform in the US, the racist implications of this conversation and the policies that emerge from it continue to be unacknowledged. What this means for both black immigrants who remain invisible in this debate and for other non-black immigrants, is that an immigration reform that does not take into account how race continues to limit and define the realities of non-whites, will be an immigration reform package that only solidifies the structural, social and economic domination of black and Latinos.
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<br>Janvieve Williams Comrie, is the current Executive Director of the Latin American and Caribbean Community Center. Her previous professional experience include the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights Central America Regional Office and the US Human Rights Network in the United States, where she worked directly on race and racial discrimination and human rights.
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<br>Follow her on Twitter: @jwpanama
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<br>The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00901753654308155860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4238398526034464925.post-30844394333134007802013-04-03T18:18:00.001-04:002013-04-03T18:18:16.807-04:00Adopted Ghanaian Girl May Get to Stay in U.S. <a href="http://www.courthousenews.com/2013/03/25/56017.htm">http://www.courthousenews.com/2013/03/25/56017.htm</a>
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<br>Adopted Ghanaian Girl May Get to Stay in U.S.
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<br> SEATTLE (CN) - U.S. immigration officials improperly ordered the deportation of a Ghanaian immigrant whose age of adoption here toed the cutoff, the 9th Circuit ruled.
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<br> Doris Amponsah Apori was born in Ghana in March 1984 and came to the United States as a visitor in 1999, when she was 15. Her aunt, a U.S. citizen, initiated adoption proceedings around that time, but the adoption was not granted until July 2000 when Apori was 16.
<br> In May 2001, U.S. immigration officials refused to adjust Apori's status because she was adopted after the age of 16.
<br> A Washington state court entered a nunc pro tunc order, which makes a ruling retroactive, about five months later to make Apori's adoption decree effective since Feb. 28, 2000, four days before her 16th birthday.
<br> Apori then married a U.S. citizen in 2002, but the Department of Homeland Security initiated removal proceedings against her in 2004.
<br> After her husband filed spousal visa petition on Apori's behalf the following year, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services denied that petition in 2007, finding that Apori had entered into "a sham marriage to obtain immigration benefits."
<br> In 2008, an immigration judge declined to rule on whether Apori was adopted before the age of 16, but concluded she did not show she had "been in the legal custody of, and has resided with, the adopting parent ... for at least two years," and could not meet the definition of "child."
<br> The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) then affirmed, finding the visa petitions are "presumptively not grantable because an adoption decree entered nunc pro tunc after the age of 16 is not given retroactive effect under the immigration laws."
<br> In a separate 2008 ruling, the BIA found affirmed that Apori's marriage was a sham.
<br> A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit granted Apori relief Friday, taking issue with the BIA's blanket rule against recognizing state courts' nunc pro tunc adoption decrees.
<br> "The BIA's interpretation is unreasonable because it gives little or no weight to the federal policy of keeping families together, fails to afford deference to valid state court judgments in an area of the law - domestic relations - that is primarily a matter of state concern and addresses the possibility of immigration fraud through a sweeping, blanket rule rather than considering the validity of nunc pro tunc adoption decrees on a case-by-case basis," Judge Raymond Fisher wrote for the panel.
<br> Here the statutory language about adoption "could refer to the date the adoption is effective under state law, as Apori asserts, or to the date the adoption process is concluded, as the government maintains," the ruling states.
<br> "The statute is therefore ambiguous with respect to the specific issue presented," Fisher added.
<br> The panel also faulted the BIA for invalidating all nunc pro tunc adoption decrees.
<br> "This rule presumes that every nunc pro tunc decree is spurious, thus sweeping aside meritorious, nonfraudulent, nunc pro tunc adoption decrees that recognize a bona fide family relationship that actually existed before the child turned 16," the ruling says.
<br> As to the sham marriage finding, the panel found the BIA violated Apori's due process rights in not allowing her to present evidence in her defense.
<br> The government could not bring up the marriage fraud question on appeal as an alternative ground for denying Apori's petition because it failed to raise issue in the original deportation proceedings.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00901753654308155860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4238398526034464925.post-90582795915346037612013-04-03T17:38:00.001-04:002013-04-03T17:38:05.013-04:00Debut Novel Tackles African Immigrant Stereotypes | WBAA<a href="http://wbaa.org/post/debut-novel-tackles-african-immigrant-stereotypes">http://wbaa.org/post/debut-novel-tackles-african-immigrant-stereotypes</a>
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<br>Debut Novel Tackles African Immigrant Stereotypes
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<br>Taiye Selasi brings the African immigrant experience to readers in her debut novel, Ghana Must Go.
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<br>The novel begins with the Sai children preparing to travel from the United States to Ghana for the funeral of the family patriarch, Kweku Sai. Before they leave, Selasi gives readers a glimpse into the events that unfolded while they were growing up in the Boston suburb of Brookline, Mass.
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<br>Fola raised her four children while Kweku worked as a gifted surgeon. But their picture-perfect life comes tumbling down when Kweku leaves the family and Fola is faced with raising the children by herself on a florist's salary.
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<br>Depressed over the failure of her marriage and desperate to find a way to help her children succeed, Fola decides to send her twins to live with an uncle in Nigeria, something Selasi says is not uncommon for the immigrants she's observed.
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<br>"West African immigrants ... often send their children to family members and don't perceive it in the same way that, I think, perhaps, an American family would perceive that — as sending your kids away," Selasi tells host Michel Martin.
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<br>The move provides a cautionary tale, Selasi says. "One of the things I think I may be critiquing in that practice is something that is very fundamental to brown families," she says, "which is that I think we often have such a fundamental trust in our family members that we fail to see those family members who are, quite simply, dangerous."
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<br>The novel also tackles some of the stereotypes of African immigrants. In one scene, the eldest Sai son, Olu, goes to his girlfriend's father to talk about marriage. Like Olu, Dr. Wei is an immigrant to the U.S., but he is not enthusiastic about his daughter marrying an African man. He cites the family structure of many African families with an absent father and the typical news stories out of Africa — about rape, child soldiers and ethnic conflict. It prompts him to ask Olu: "How can you value another man's daughter, or son, when you don't even value your own?"
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<br>The question, though harsh, is one Selasi felt obligated to have the character ask. "While Dr. Wei is speaking in a hugely reductive, in a hugely generalizing, in a hugely stereotyping manner, he is also touching, in so doing, on some things that are true," she says.
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<br>Members of the Sai family find that their own truths are painful. When told, stories that have been kept secret for years from other family members reveal deep wounds.
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<br>Critics have pointed out that certain characters in the novel bear striking similarities to Selasi's own family. Selasi is the daughter of immigrant parents and the product of an Ivy League education. But she says that's pure coincidence: "I've told the anecdote — I was at a yoga retreat in Sweden when these characters sort of appeared to me. I think probably the longer, deeper, truer story is they'd been on their way for a very long time."
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<br>When she's pressed on whether her own experiences give her pause when tackling some of the stereotypes of Africans in her novel, she says, "As a novelist, I ask of myself only that I tell the truth and that I tell it beautifully."Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00901753654308155860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4238398526034464925.post-35856989771259135052013-02-20T08:52:00.001-05:002013-02-20T08:52:40.378-05:00Little Senegal in the Big Apple: Harlem's West African heart<a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2013/02/19/world/africa/little-senegal-harlem/?hpt=hp_c4&utm_source=Africa+Center+for+Strategic+Studies+-+Media+Review+for+February+20%2C+2013&utm_campaign=2%2F20%2F2013&utm_medium=email">http://edition.cnn.com/2013/02/19/world/africa/little-senegal-harlem/?hpt=hp_c4&utm_source=Africa+Center+for+Strategic+Studies+-+Media+Review+for+February+20%2C+2013&utm_campaign=2%2F20%2F2013&utm_medium=email</a>
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<br>Little Senegal in the Big Apple: Harlem's West African heart
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<br>Harlem, New York (CNN) -- At the heart of West Harlem, West Africa is buzzing.
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<br>Nestled inside one of the world's most diverse cities, over the years the thriving neighborhood of Harlem has become the hub of New York's African American community.
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<br>At the start of the 20th century, throngs of African Americans migrated from the southern United States into the big city, lured by the jobs and opportunities of urban life.
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<br>But in the last 30 years or so, another group of people decided to call Harlem home. Scores of immigrants from several francophone West African countries moved to the borough to start a new life. At the center of it all, a vibrant Senegalese community has created a new home away from home, adding their culture, fashion and tastes to Harlem's diverse mix.
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<br>Read: African flavor at the heart of Paris
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<br>Known as Little Senegal, or Le Petit Senegal, the strip of blocks around West 116th Street is packed with inviting restaurants and colorful shops, powerful reminders of life back in the homeland.
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<br>"We're the ones who built Harlem," says El Hadji Fey, vice president of the Senegalese Association of America. "When we got here, all the stores you see over here, it was absolutely nothing. We bought a lot of stores here, a lot of Senegalese businesses right here.
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<br>"We were scared in the beginning -- you know how Harlem was 20, 30 years ago. We're the ones who really made Harlem grow up. That's why a lot of people call here Little Senegal because we started making the community grow, we started making people grow."
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<br>Along this stretch of blocks, the taste of Senegal is everywhere -- from the tantalizing scents of fish and rice stews emanating from the traditional restaurants dotting the neighborhood, through to the lively Malcolm Shabazz Market, where stall vendors hawk their wares, to the numerous Senegalese-named clothes and haircare shops.
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<br>Read: Brazil's thriving African culture
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<br>At "Africa Kine," which was one of the first Senegalese restaurants to open in Harlem, some two decades ago, homesick customers find comfort in flavors conjuring up memories of home. Others come here looking for fellow countrymen who can make their new city feel less strange.
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<br>We're the ones who built Harlem.
<br>El Hadji Fey, VP, Senegalese Association of America
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<br>Waitress Maritou Djigal says that "thiebou dienn," Senegal's national dish made of Jolof rice with fish, is the meal of choice in the Harlem eatery.
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<br>"Most of the time they [diners] say 'it reminds me of Senegal, it reminds me of my family,'" she explains.
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<br>Not far from Africa Kine, at the Red Rooster restaurant, chef Marcus Samuelson is busy checking orders. Samuelson, known for introducing African spices to Western dishes, is using the continent's culinary traditions to expose Africa to a wider audience.
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<br>"I look at Africa as a great source of information and inspiration," says Samuelson. "And that's how I come up with some of the great dishes here," he adds. "Harlem is a very special and unique community and it always reminds me of Africa and I feel the most at home here. I love it, it's a real community."
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<br>Read: African slave traditions live on in U.S.
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<br>Although called Little Senegal, landmarks with great historical significance for native Africans and African Americans stretch along the Harlem neighborhood.
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<br>Neal Shoemaker, the energetic president of the Harlem Heritage Tours and Cultural Center, says that some of the most famous African American activists calling for civil rights in the mid-1950s and 1960s were active in the area.
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<br>"As you walk through this area here, it's like taking a cultural bath," says Shoemaker, who's been leading tours through Little Senegal for over a decade
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<br>"Malcolm X's presence is everywhere in this area," he adds, as he walks through the neighborhood. "That corner right there, on 115th street where the housing project exists, where I was born and raised, is one of the corners where he'd minister to the people and he would offer what he felt was the diagnosis to many of the social problems of the area.
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<br>"So when you walk through this area here, you're walking in the steps of many great civil rights leaders."Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00901753654308155860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4238398526034464925.post-87127467584885695602013-02-19T22:37:00.001-05:002013-02-19T22:37:59.920-05:00Overlooked Story of Black Immigrants in the United States Deserves Attention<div class="original-url"><a href="http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2013/02/19/53921/overlooked-story-of-black-immigrants-in-the-united-states-deserves-attention/">http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2013/02/19/53921/overlooked-story-of-black-immigrants-in-the-united-states-deserves-attention/</a><br><br></div><div id="article"> <!-- This node will contain a number of 'page' class divs. --> <div class="page" style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; "><h1 class="title">Race and Beyond: Overlooked Story of Black Immigrants in the United States Deserves Attention</h1> <img src="http://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/AP12042607390-620.jpg" alt="Barwako Abayle" class="reader-image-large"><p>SOURCE: AP/ Toby Talbot</p><p>Barwako Abayle, an immigrant student from Burlington High School, listens during a meeting with lawmakers about racial inequality at her school on April 26, 2012 in Montpelier, Vermont.</p><p style="font-weight: bold; ">By <a href="/about/staff/fulwood-iii-sam/bio/">Sam Fulwood III</a> | <span>February 19, 2013</span></p> <p><em>Note: This is the second of two columns on black Americans and immigration reform. Today, I examine the history and plight of black immigrants in the United States.</em></p> <p>Thanks in large part to the prevalence of media narratives, the current discussion of immigration reform is often represented by a Latino face. This works well to impress a human story in portraying the need for the nation to reform our dysfunctional immigration system. But the emphasis on the Latino story as <em>the </em>immigrant story fails to capture the broader, more complex issue.</p> <p>Many Americans are familiar with the <a href="http://www.myimmigrationstory.com/">stories</a> about work-seeking immigrants who crossed our southern border and are compelled to live and toil in the shadows of opportunity. Often overlooked or ignored, however, are the estimated 3 million black immigrants whose daily plight in the United States is no less dramatic or demanding of public attention. While the vast majority of black immigrants are legal residents concentrated in large cities such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Miami, <a href="http://www.theroot.com/views/black-immigrants-join-debate">an estimated 400,000 of them lack documents</a> that would allow them to live openly.</p> <p>"It's been nerve-racking because it puts me at risk," <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BWjZTf_96g">Tolu Olubunmi told the world at a news conference in 2011</a>, announcing her undocumented status and her willingness to work for comprehensive immigration reform. "But I think you have to focus on the individual to get away from the politics of an issue that's so divisive. Once you know that there are real people attached to the statistics, then you have to start working on real solutions."</p> <p>(Full disclosure: Tolu, 32, was born in Lagos, Nigeria, and was brought to the United States by her mother when she was 14. Her activism is well known to me—she was one of the <a href="http://www.americanprogress.org/press/release/2011/10/13/13703/release-center-for-american-progress-announces-inaugural-class-of-leadership-institute-fellows/">inaugural fellows of the Center for American Progress's Leadership Institute</a>, a program I created to increase the number of public policy experts from communities of color. Her work to bring about a change in the nation's immigration policies continues in her new job as a senior policy analyst at the <a href="http://www.communitychange.org/">Center for Community Change</a> in Washington, D.C.)</p> <p>As is the case with any immigrant to the United States, black immigrants find their way to this country in search of their own American Dream. Yet unlike many white immigrants, they discover heightened barriers in reaching their dream. The persistence of racism and anti-black bias in many forms of American life comes as a rude awakening to those who expect opportunity to be limited only by their willingness for hard work.</p> <p>Although the nation has long had a significant black population, owing to its legacy of slavery and the importation of Africans as chattel property, the history of willful and voluntary black immigration is a relatively recent development.</p> <p>According to figures in a recent <a href="http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/files/2013/02/FINAL_immigrant_generations_report_2-7-13.pdf">Pew Social Trends report</a>, immigration from the Caribbean—primarily Jamaica, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Dominican Republic—ticked up after the Spanish-American War ended in 1898. But the real expansion occurred after passage of 1965 federal laws that enabled people from countries other than Europe to find their place in this country.</p> <p>Immigration from Africa was rare until the late 20th century, as many came from Africa to study in the United States and decided to stay. The Pew report estimates, however, that about 21 percent of African immigrants are undocumented. Moreover, no single country dominates the flow from the many African nations. Nigeria, which produced the largest single group of black immigrants in 2009, only accounted for about one in five of all black African immigrants that year, Pew reported.</p> <p>Immigrants from Africa were also among the fastest-growing groups within the U.S. foreign-born population from 2000 to 2009. If current trends continue, the Pew analysts predict that Africa will replace the Caribbean by 2020 as the major source of black immigration to the United States.</p> <p>Helina Faris, a former intern with the Center for American Progress's Immigration team, recently <a href="http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/news/2012/12/20/48571/5-fast-facts-about-black-immigrants-in-the-united-states/">noted</a>:</p> <blockquote><p>Even with high levels of education, black immigrants tend to <a href="http://www.migrationpolicy.org/pubs/AfricanMigrationUS.pdf">earn low wages</a> compared to other similarly trained immigrant or native workers. In 2011 black immigrants had the highest unemployment rate—<a href="http://www.bls.gov/news.release/forbrn.nr0.htm">12.5 percent</a>—of any foreign-born group in the United States. Proposed immigration reforms such as <a href="http://www.migrationpolicy.org/pubs/AfricanMigrationUS.pdf">reductions in family-based admissions</a> and elimination of the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/28/stem-act-white-house-immigration_n_2207279.html">diversity visa lottery</a> could affect the flow of black immigrants to the United States, cutting off all legal means of entry into the country.</p></blockquote> <p>That's unfortunate because immigration reform is needed to assist more than a single ethnic or population group. It's required for fairness to all who currently work—and wait—in the shadows of opportunity.</p> <p><em>Sam Fulwood III is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and Director of the </em><a href="http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/07/rab_073112.html/%22http://www.americanpr"><em>CAP Leadership Institute</em></a><em>. His work with the Center's </em><a href="http://www.americanprogress.org/projects/2050/"><em>Progress 2050</em></a><em> project examines the impact of policies on the nation when there will be no clear racial or ethnic majority by the year 2050.</em></p> <p><strong>See also:</strong></p> <ul> <li><a href="http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2013/02/12/52992/race-and-beyond-black-immigration-views-too-often-ignore-fact-and-history/">Race and Beyond: Black Immigration Views Too Often Ignore Fact and History</a> by Sam Fulwood</li></ul></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00901753654308155860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4238398526034464925.post-78610978051555419642013-01-29T08:42:00.000-05:002013-01-29T08:47:32.530-05:00U.S. Reaches Deal With Niger to Fight Africa Extremists<div><div class="original-url"><a href="http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-29/u-s-reaches-deal-with-niger-to-fight-africa-extremists.html?utm_source=Africa+Center+for+Strategic+Studies+-+Media+Review+for+January+29%2C+2012&utm_campaign=01%2F29%2F2013&utm_medium=email">http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-29/u-s-reaches-deal-with-niger-to-fight-africa-extremists.html?utm_source=Africa+Center+for+Strategic+Studies+-+Media+Review+for+January+29%2C+2012&utm_campaign=01%2F29%2F2013&utm_medium=email</a><br><br></div><div id="article"> <!-- This node will contain a number of 'page' class divs. --> <div class="page" style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; "><h1 class="title">U.S. Reaches Deal With Niger to Fight Africa Extremists - Bloomberg</h1> <p style="font-weight: bold; ">U.S. Reaches Deal With Niger to Fight Africa Extremists</p> <p>By Gopal Ratnam and Margaret Talev <br> January 29, 2013 3:32 AM EST </p> <p></p> <a href="/photo/2013-01-29/u-s-reaches-deal-with-niger-to-fight-africa-extremists"> <img src="http://mobile.bloomberg.com/image/index/pKISbwVuPwu-CpydsHPB-_ZzUeF8YNn3pSP_hdYcB-jeaVo7MC93GSkm0e7mpv9Ysm4SNHQUfdFCOkPclMKfZ9CUybeuQ86QqPvbWMC5B-eh3lqkPqkgukhgoIa-eGsGCD4Qr_KDqIxEgIvT52jCFi-wMjcy7J1OELQFhliwvoYa7eu81HQi3QHgaQ**" width="280" height="186" alt=" Soldiers of the Nigerois battalion bound for Mali pose in front of their armored vehicles at a training camp near Ouallam, 100 kilometers north of Niamey, Niger, on Jan. 22, 2013. Photographer: Boureima Hama/AFP/Getty Images " class="reader-image-large"> </a> <div> <p>The U.S. and Niger reached an agreement allowing American military personnel to be stationed in the West African country and enabling them to take on Islamist militants in neighboring <a href="/topics/mali/" density="full" style="font-weight: bold; ">Mali</a>, according to U.S. officials. </p> </div> <p>The accord could make it possible for the U.S. to base unmanned surveillance aircraft there, said one official, adding that no decision has been made to station the drones. President <a href="/topics/barack-obama/" density="sparse" style="font-weight: bold; ">Barack Obama</a>'s administration doesn't intend to send combat troops to Niger, a White House official said. </p> <p>The pact will allow deployment of U.S. personnel as well as other military assets in Niger to respond to the terror threat in the region, a U.S. defense official said. The so-called status-of-forces agreement grants immunity from domestic laws to U.S. personnel stationed in the country. The moves come after France began airstrikes in Mali on Jan. 11 and later deployed ground troops, wresting control of several cities including Timbuktu yesterday from Islamist militants. </p> <p>While the contours of the U.S. military presence are still being worked out, the deal is intended to increase intelligence collection, among other purposes, the defense official said. The officials all asked to not be named in discussing the accord, which has not been announced. </p> <p>The deal with Niger, which has been in the works for more than a year, is unconditional and not limited to a specific time period, according to the U.S. defense official. The <a href="/topics/new-york/" density="sparse" style="font-weight: bold; ">New York</a> Times reported yesterday on the accord and the possibility of deploying drones in the country. </p> <p>The pact comes after the Pentagon announced an agreement on Jan. 26 to provide aerial refueling support to French troops battling extremists in Mali, including militants operating under the banner of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM. Together, the accords signal wider U.S. involvement in confronting terror groups in North Africa. The U.K. has already provided transport and surveillance aircraft to help the French mission. </p> <p>Malian forces yesterday entered Timbuktu, with French forces encircling the historic city and now hold its airport, Mali's army spokesman, Colonel Diarran Kone, said by phone from the capital, Bamako. The advance follows the capture of Gao, about 590 miles (950 kilometers) north of Bamako on Jan. 26. </p> <p>At least 11,000 people have been forced from their homes by the recent fighting, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. About 230,000 have been displaced since the crisis began, the agency said Jan. 22. </p> <p>The European Union today pledged to contribute 50 million euros ($67 million) to an African-led mission to fight rebels in northern Mali. European and U.S. leaders have said northern Mali is turning into a haven for Islamist militants intent on attacking Western targets. </p> <p>If approved, the U.S. base in Niger would likely be to provide surveillance for the French-led operation in Mali, the Times reported. While initially only unarmed drones would fly out of the base, the site may be used for missile strikes at some point if the threat worsens, the newspaper said. </p> <p>General Carter Ham, head of the U.S. military command in <a href="/topics/africa/" density="sparse" style="font-weight: bold; ">Africa</a>, said the subject was "too operational for me to confirm or deny," the Times reported, citing an e-mail it received from Ham. The Africa Command's plan still needs approval from the Pentagon, the White House and officials in Niger, the newspaper reported. </p> <p>Since the ouster of Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi, which unleashed a flow of weapons to militants in the region, the Obama administration has been torn between wanting to avoid entanglements in the region while warning of the dangers of advancing Islamist extremism. </p> <p>The U.S. has shown reluctance to provide weapons or American troops to the fight in Mali, just as it has largely sidestepped the civil war in <a href="/topics/syria/" density="sparse" style="font-weight: bold; ">Syria</a>. U.S. officials say that shifting alliances among at least four rebel groups in Mali have made it hard to get a clear picture of the conflict there. </p> <p>Defense Secretary Leon Panetta offered a brief insight earlier this month into the Obama administration's internal deliberations when he pointed to legal questions being raised over France's request for U.S. military help. </p> <p>"I find that every time I turn around, I face a group of lawyers," Panetta told reporters on Jan. 16 in <a href="/topics/rome/" density="full" style="font-weight: bold; ">Rome</a>. The administration's legal counsel wanted "to be sure that they feel comfortable that we have the legal basis to do what we are being requested to do" in aiding the French, he said. </p> <p>Those questions were resolved and the U.S. is now providing airlift, intelligence as well as refueling French military planes. </p> <p>The U.S. couldn't directly aid Mali's current government, which was installed through a coup, Victoria Nuland, a State Department spokeswoman, said Jan. 15. She said there were no restrictions on helping allies such as <a href="/topics/france/" density="sparse" style="font-weight: bold; ">France</a>. </p> <p>France intervened in Mali on Jan. 11 after Islamist fighters overran the town of Konna, sparking concern they might advance toward Bamako. The French Defense Ministry said that 2,500 soldiers have arrived in the landlocked West African country, which gained independence from France in 1960. African nations are deploying a force that may total as many as 3,300 troops. </p> <p>To contact the reporters on this story: Gopal Ratnam in Washington at <a href="mailto:gratnam1@bloomberg.net" title="Send E-mail" density="mailto" style="font-weight: bold; ">gratnam1@bloomberg.net</a>; Margaret Talev in Washington at <a href="mailto:mtalev@bloomberg.net" title="Send E-mail" density="mailto" style="font-weight: bold; ">mtalev@bloomberg.net</a> </p> <p>To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Walcott at <a href="mailto:jwalcott9@bloomberg.net" title="Send E-mail" density="mailto" style="font-weight: bold; ">jwalcott9@bloomberg.net</a></p></div></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00901753654308155860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4238398526034464925.post-11003303957068421802013-01-17T10:47:00.000-05:002013-01-17T10:48:02.738-05:00The Second Amendment was Ratified to Preserve Slavery<div><div class="original-url"><a href="http://truth-out.org/news/item/13890-the-second-amendment-was-ratified-to-preserve-slavery">http://truth-out.org/news/item/13890-the-second-amendment-was-ratified-to-preserve-slavery</a><br><br></div><div id="article"> <!-- This node will contain a number of 'page' class divs. --> <div class="page" style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; "><h1 class="title">The Second Amendment was Ratified to Preserve Slavery</h1> <p><span style="font-weight: bold; width: 306px; " class="float right"><img alt="Musket" src="http://truth-out.org/images/2013_0115gun_.jpg" height="340" width="306" style="float: none; "><span style="width: 306px; ">(Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/birminghammag/5957727744/" target="_blank">Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery</a>)</span></span>The real reason the Second Amendment was ratified, and why it says "State" instead of "Country" (the Framers knew the difference - see the 10th Amendment), was to preserve the slave patrol militias in the southern states, which was necessary to get Virginia's vote. Founders Patrick Henry, George Mason, and James Madison were totally clear on that . . . and we all should be too.</p> <p>In the beginning, there were the militias. In the South, they were also called the "slave patrols," and they were regulated by the states. </p> <p>In Georgia, for example, a generation before the American Revolution, laws were passed in 1755 and 1757 that required all plantation owners or their male white employees to be members of the Georgia Militia, and for those armed militia members to make monthly inspections of the quarters of all slaves in the state. The law defined which counties had which armed militias and even required armed militia members to keep a keen eye out for slaves who may be planning uprisings. </p> <p>As Dr. Carl T. Bogus wrote for the University of California <a href="http://www.saf.org/LawReviews/Bogus2.htm" target="_blank">Law Review</a> in 1998, "The Georgia statutes required patrols, under the direction of commissioned militia officers, to examine every plantation each month and authorized them to search 'all Negro Houses for offensive Weapons and Ammunition' and to apprehend and give twenty lashes to any slave found outside plantation grounds."</p> <p>It's the answer to the question raised by the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv=ztD3mRMdqSw" target="_blank">character played by </a> Leonardo DiCaprio in <em>Django Unchained</em> when he asks, "Why don't they just rise up and kill the whites?" If the movie were real, it would have been a purely rhetorical question, because every southerner of the era knew the simple answer: Well regulated militias kept the slaves in chains.</p> <p>Sally E. Haden, in her <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Slave-Patrols-Violence-Carolinas-Historical/dp/0674012348/" target="_blank">book </a> <em>Slave Patrols: Law and Violence in Virginia and the Carolinas</em>, notes that, "Although eligibility for the Militia seemed all-encompassing, not every middle-aged white male Virginian or Carolinian became a slave patroller." There were exemptions so "men in critical professions" like judges, legislators and students could stay at their work. Generally, though, she documents how most southern men between ages 18 and 45 - including physicians and ministers - had to serve on slave patrol in the militia at one time or another in their lives.</p> <p>And slave rebellions were keeping the slave patrols busy. </p> <p>By the time the Constitution was ratified, hundreds of substantial slave uprisings had occurred across the South. Blacks outnumbered whites in large areas, and the state militias were used to both prevent and to put down slave uprisings. As Dr. Bogus points out, slavery can only exist in the context of a police state, and the enforcement of that police state was the explicit job of the militias.</p> <p>If the anti-slavery folks in the North had figured out a way to disband - or even move out of the state - those southern militias, the police state of the South would collapse. And, similarly, if the North were to invite into military service the slaves of the South, then they could be emancipated, which would collapse the institution of slavery, and the southern economic and social systems, altogether.</p> <p>These two possibilities worried southerners like James Monroe, George Mason (who owned over 300 slaves) and the southern Christian evangelical, Patrick Henry (who opposed slavery on principle, but also opposed freeing slaves). </p> <p>Their main concern was that Article 1, Section 8 of the newly-proposed Constitution, which gave the federal government the power to raise and supervise a militia, could also allow that federal militia to subsume their state militias and change them from slavery-enforcing institutions into something that could even, one day, free the slaves. </p> <p>This was not an imagined threat. Famously, 12 years earlier, during the lead-up to the Revolutionary War, Lord Dunsmore offered freedom to slaves who could escape and join his forces. "Liberty to Slaves" was stitched onto their jacket pocket flaps. During the War, British General Henry Clinton extended the practice in 1779. And numerous freed slaves served in General Washington's army.</p> <p>Thus, southern legislators and plantation owners lived not just in fear of their own slaves rebelling, but also in fear that their slaves could be emancipated through military service.</p> <p>At the ratifying convention in Virginia in 1788, Henry laid it out:</p> <p>"Let me here call your attention to that part [Article 1, Section 8 of the proposed Constitution] which gives the Congress power to provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States. . . . </p> <p>"By this, sir, you see that their control over our last and best defence is unlimited. If they neglect or refuse to discipline or arm our militia, they will be useless: the states can do neither . . . this power being exclusively given to Congress. The power of appointing officers over men not disciplined or armed is ridiculous; so that this pretended little remains of power left to the states may, at the pleasure of Congress, be rendered nugatory."</p> <p>George Mason expressed a similar fear:</p> <blockquote> <p>"The militia may be here destroyed by that method which has been practised in other parts of the world before; that is, by rendering them useless, by disarming them. Under various pretences, Congress may neglect to provide for arming and disciplining the militia; and the state governments cannot do it, for Congress has an exclusive right to arm them [under this proposed Constitution] . . . "</p> </blockquote> <p><span>Henry then bluntly laid it out:</span></p> <blockquote> <p>"If the country be invaded, a state may go to war, but cannot suppress [slave] insurrections [under this new Constitution]. If there should happen an insurrection of slaves, the country cannot be said to be invaded. They cannot, therefore, suppress it without the interposition of Congress . . . . Congress, and Congress only [under this new Constitution], can call forth the militia."</p> </blockquote> <p>And why was that such a concern for <a href="http://jgiganti.myweb.uga.edu/henry_smith_onslavery.htm">Patrick Henry</a>?</p> <p>"In this state," he said, "there are two hundred and thirty-six thousand blacks, and there are many in several other states. But there are few or none in the Northern States. . . . May Congress not say, that every black man must fight? Did we not see a little of this last war? We were not so hard pushed as to make emancipation general; but acts of Assembly passed that every slave who would go to the army should be free."</p> <p>Patrick Henry was also convinced that the power over the various state militias given the federal government in the new Constitution could be used to strip the slave states of their slave-patrol militias. He knew the majority attitude in the North opposed slavery, and he worried they'd use the Constitution to free the South's slaves (a process then called "Manumission"). </p> <p>The abolitionists would, he was certain, use that power (and, ironically, this is pretty much what Abraham Lincoln ended up doing):</p> <blockquote> <p>"[T]hey will search that paper [the Constitution], and see if they have power of manumission," said Henry. "And have they not, sir? Have they not power to provide for the general defence and welfare? May they not think that these call for the abolition of slavery? May they not pronounce all slaves free, and will they not be warranted by that power?</p> <p>"This is no ambiguous implication or logical deduction. The paper speaks to the point: they have the power in clear, unequivocal terms, and will clearly and certainly exercise it."</p> </blockquote> <p>He added: "This is a local matter, and I can see no propriety in subjecting it to Congress."</p> <p>James Madison, the "Father of the Constitution" and a slaveholder himself, basically called Patrick Henry paranoid.</p> <p>"I was struck with surprise," <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=tN99jYDpUi0C&;pg=PA92&lpg=PA92&dq=%22alarmed+with+respect+to+the+emancipation%22+madison&source=bl&ots=bFUi95nbYz&sig=lytuAn4skhTFHZjkZTZKHxPk08Y&hl=en&sa=X&ei=88_xUMvDMIyI0QHBxYG4CA&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage" target="_blank">Madison said</a>, "when I heard him express himself alarmed with respect to the emancipation of slaves. . . . There is no power to warrant it, in that paper [the Constitution]. If there be, I know it not."</p> <p>But the southern fears wouldn't go away. </p> <p>Patrick Henry even argued that southerner's "property" (slaves) would be lost under the new Constitution, and the resulting slave uprising would be less than peaceful or tranquil:</p> <blockquote> <p>"In this situation," Henry said to Madison, "I see a great deal of the property of the people of Virginia in jeopardy, and their peace and tranquility gone."</p> </blockquote> <p>So Madison, who had (at Jefferson's insistence) already begun to prepare proposed amendments to the Constitution, changed his first draft of one that addressed the militia issue to make sure it was unambiguous that the southern states could maintain their slave patrol militias. </p> <p>His first draft for what became the Second Amendment had said: "The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed, and well regulated militia being the best security of a free <strong>country</strong> [emphasis mine]: but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms, shall be compelled to render military service in person."</p> <p>But Henry, Mason and others wanted southern states to preserve their slave-patrol militias independent of the federal government. So Madison changed the word "country" to the word "state," and redrafted the Second Amendment into today's form:</p> <blockquote> <p>"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free <strong>State</strong> [emphasis mine], the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."</p> </blockquote> <p>Little did Madison realize that one day in the future weapons-manufacturing corporations, newly defined as "persons" by a Supreme Court some have called <span>dysfunctional,</span> would use his slave patrol militia amendment to protect their "right" to manufacture and sell assault weapons used to murder schoolchildren.</p></div></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00901753654308155860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4238398526034464925.post-8182619882875110582013-01-13T13:54:00.001-05:002013-01-13T13:54:53.119-05:00Three years after Haiti earthquake, pain lingers<div><div class="original-url"><a href="http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20130111/NEWS01/301120015/Three-years-after-Haiti-earthquake-pain-lingers?nclick_check=1">http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20130111/NEWS01/301120015/Three-years-after-Haiti-earthquake-pain-lingers?nclick_check=1</a><br><br></div><div id="article"> <!-- This node will contain a number of 'page' class divs. --> <div class="page" style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; "><h1 class="title">Three years after Haiti earthquake, pain lingers</h1><!--Saxotech Paragraph Count: 9<br>--><p><span></span>His legs are paralyzed, he can't work and he barely leaves his small Louisville apartment — but what troubles Marcelous Pierre most is his family's desperate plight back home in Haiti.</p><p><span></span>Three years after the devastating 2010 Haitian earthquake killed one of his children and severed his spinal cord, leaving him a medical refugee in Louisville, Pierre said his wife and three surviving children still live in a leaky tent, eking out a meager existence.<span></span></p><p><span></span>"That's my concern, my family," said Pierre, 38, one of at least eight injured Haitians who were treated and then resettled in Louisville after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake — one of the hemisphere's deadliest natural disasters. "After all the (recovery aid) money they put in ... my family is still in a tent."<span></span></p><p><span></span>Pierre's plight is a stark reminder of the massive upheaval that continues to plague Haiti as a result of the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake that killed tens of thousands, left nearly a million homeless and spurred many Louisville residents, donors, aid groups and doctors to help.<span></span></p><p><span></span>On this third anniversary, local refugees and aid groups working in the impoverished Caribbean island nation say recovery is still painfully slow, despite billions in aid donations, including funds that remain undistributed.<span></span></p><p><span></span>An estimated 357,785 Haitians still live in 496 tent camps, according to a recent report by The New York Times. Others have moved to shanties or slums. Cholera, widespread joblessness and other woes still grip the nation.<span></span></p><p><span></span>The Rev. Frantz Philippe of Louisville's Haitian Baptist Church, who visited his home country last year and has many parishioners with stricken relatives, said he plans a local memorial service Sunday to remember lost loved ones and console those frustrated by the sluggish pace of recovery.<span></span></p><p><span></span>"Three years later, they still have people on the streets," he said.<span></span></p><h3>Daily difficulties</h3><p><span></span>After spending a year in Louisville getting life-saving heart surgery in the disaster's aftermath, Stephanie Privert, now 18, is back in Haiti with 10 family members, living in a three-room, concrete block house funded by money raised in Louisville.</p></div></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00901753654308155860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4238398526034464925.post-30887311934995143072013-01-06T19:35:00.001-05:002013-01-06T19:35:21.770-05:00Escaping Slavery<div><div class="original-url"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/05/opinion/blow-escaping-slavery.html?smid=tw-share&_r=2&">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/05/opinion/blow-escaping-slavery.html?smid=tw-share&_r=2&</a><br><br></div><div id="article"> <!-- This node will contain a number of 'page' class divs. --> <div class="page" style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; "><h1 class="title">Escaping Slavery</h1><p itemprop="articleBody"> America has slavery on the brain these days. </p> <p itemprop="articleBody"> There were the recent releases of the movies "Lincoln" (which I found enlightening and enjoyable) and "Django Unchained" (which I found a profound love story with an orgy of excesses and muddled moralities). I guess my preferences reflect my penchant for subtlety. Sometimes a little bit of an unsettling thing goes a long way, and a lot goes too far. Aside from its gratuitous goriness, "Django Unchained" reportedly used the N-word more than 100 times. "Lincoln" used it only a handful. I don't know exactly where my threshold is, but I think it's well shy of the century mark. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> And there was this week the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, one of the most important documents in this country's archives. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> All of this has caused me to think deeply about the long shadow of slavery, the legacy of that most grievous enterprise and the ways in which that poison tree continues to bear fruit. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> To be sure, America has moved light-years forward from the days of slavery. But the idea that progress toward racial harmony would or should be steady and continuous is fraying. And the pillars of the institution — the fundamental devaluation of dark skin and strained justifications for the unconscionable — have proved surprisingly resilient. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> For instance, in October, The Arkansas Times <a href="http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2012/10/05/republican-extremists-in-their-own-words">reported</a> that Jon Hubbard, a Republican state representative, wrote in a 2009 self-published book that "the institution of slavery that the black race has long believed to be an abomination upon its people may actually have been a blessing in disguise." His misguided point was that for all the horrors of slavery, blacks were better off in America than in Africa. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> This was a prevailing, wrongheaded, ethically empty justification for American slavery when it was legal. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> Robert E. Lee wrote in 1856: "The blacks are immeasurably better off here than in Africa, morally, physically, and socially. The painful discipline they are undergoing is necessary for their further instruction as a race, and will prepare them, I hope, for better things." </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> And in a famous 1837 speech on the Senate floor, John C. Calhoun declared: "I hold that in the present state of civilization, where two races of different origin, and distinguished by color, and other physical differences, as well as intellectual, are brought together, the relation now existing in the slaveholding States between the two, is, instead of an evil, a good — a positive good." </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> Lee was later appointed commander in chief of the armies of the South, and Calhoun had been vice president and became secretary of state. But in November, Hubbard lost his seat; I guess that's progress. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> Still, the persistence of such a ridiculous argument does not sit well with me. And we should all be unsettled by the tendency of some people to romanticize and empathize with the Confederacy. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> A <a href="http://www.people-press.org/2011/04/08/civil-war-at-150-still-relevant-still-divisive/">Pew Research Center poll</a> released in April 2011 found that most Southern whites think it's appropriate for modern-day politicians to praise Confederate leaders, the only demographic to believe that. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> A <a href="http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/12/cnnopinion-research-poll-april-9-10-civil-war/">CNN poll</a> also released that month found that nearly 4 in 10 white Southerners sympathize more with the Confederacy than with the Union. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> What is perhaps more problematic is that negative attitudes about blacks are increasing. According to an October <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2012/10/27/poll-black-prejudice-america/1662067/">survey by The Associated Press</a>: "In all, 51 percent of Americans now express explicit anti-black attitudes, compared with 48 percent in a similar 2008 survey. When measured by an implicit racial attitudes test, the number of Americans with anti-black sentiments jumped to 56 percent, up from 49 percent during the last presidential election." </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> Not progress. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> In fact, it feels as though slavery as an analogy has become subversively chic. Herman Cain, running as a Republican presidential candidate, built an entire campaign around this not-so-coded language, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ollRkX0o5cM">saying</a> that he had left "the Democrat plantation," calling blacks "<a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/64677.html">brainwashed</a>" and arguing, "I don't believe racism in this country today holds anybody back in a big way." </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> As the best-selling author Michelle Alexander pointed out in her sensational 2010 book "The New Jim Crow," various factors, including the methodical mass incarceration of black men, has led to the disintegration of the black family, the disenfranchisement of millions of people, and a new and very real era of American oppression. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> As Alexander confirmed to me Friday: "Today there are more African-American adults under correctional control — in prison or jail, on probation or parole — than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began." </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> Definitely not progress.</p></div></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00901753654308155860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4238398526034464925.post-49276865282362835892013-01-03T18:06:00.001-05:002013-01-03T18:06:52.003-05:00President of Haiti Assumes Chairmanship of CARICOM :: The St. Kitts-Nevis Observer<div><div class="original-url"><a href="http://www.thestkittsnevisobserver.com/2012/12/28/caricom-haiti.html">http://www.thestkittsnevisobserver.com/2012/12/28/caricom-haiti.html</a><br><br></div><div id="article"> <!-- This node will contain a number of 'page' class divs. --> <div class="page" style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; "><h1 class="title">President of Haiti Assumes Chairmanship of CARICOM :: The St. Kitts-Nevis Observer</h1> <div style="width: 100%; " class="reader-scrollable-div"><table width="415" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"> <tbody><tr> <td>President of Haiti Assumes Chairmanship of CARICOM</td> </tr> <tr> <td>Source: <a href="http://www.caricom.org/jsp/pressreleases/press_releases_2013/pres2_13.jsp" target="_blank">Caricom.org</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <div align="center"><img src="http://www.thestkittsnevisobserver.com/images/2012-12-28/haiti_martelly.jpg" width="525" height="355" class="reader-image-large"></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <p>His Excellency Michel Martelly, President of Haiti</p></td></tr> <tr> <td> <span style="line-height: 1.4; ">Jan. 2 -- Chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), His Excellency Michel Martelly, President of Haiti, has called on Member States to consolidate efforts in order to achieve the "necessary structural changes to increase the well-being of our peoples."</span></td></tr></tbody></table></div> <p>In a message to the Community at the beginning of its fortieth anniversary year, Mr. Martelly, whose country is chairing the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM for the first time, reflected on unity as a means of overcoming the serious economic, environmental, and social challenges affecting the Region.</p> <p>In its fortieth year of existence, there was ample evidence that the Community "constitutes a useful mechanism to facilitate integration within the Region," President Martelly said.</p> <p>He added that as small, vulnerable states in a competitive, economic environment, the task at hand was to ensure that CARICOM constituted a bulwark that would protect its Member States in the current formidable global environment.</p> <p>"In my capacity as Chairman of the Community, I resolutely commit myself and my country to this noble and urgent necessity. Haiti gladly embraces this opportunity to provide leadership to the integration process for the next six months, and looks forward to help strengthen the Caribbean Community. During Haiti's Chairmanship, we shall also endeavour to promote sustainable development policies based on an effective cooperation strategy," President Martelly said.</p> <p>In this quest, President Martelly said he would build upon the "sterling work" of his predecessor, Dr. the Hon. Kenny Anthony, Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, and would seek the support of the Hon. Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, who is the third member of the Bureau of Heads of Government, and other Heads of Government.</p> <p>Referring to Haiti's role in the Community, President Martelly acknowledged that his country must accelerate its integration into CARICOM and committed to doing so during his tenure as Chairman.</p></div></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00901753654308155860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4238398526034464925.post-59588468309482829432013-01-03T12:54:00.001-05:002013-01-03T12:54:21.485-05:00Israel African Immigrant Deportations To Send Thousands Back Home<div class="original-url"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2013/01/02/israel-african-immigrant-deportations_n_2397018.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/2013/01/02/israel-african-immigrant-deportations_n_2397018.html</a><br><br></div><div id="article"> <!-- This node will contain a number of 'page' class divs. --> <div class="page" style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; "><h1 class="title">Israel African Immigrant Deportations To Send Thousands Back Home - The Huffington Post</h1><div style="font-weight: bold; ">Israel African Immigrant Deportations To Send Thousands Back Home</div> <div disablecomment="" style="font-weight: bold; "> <a disablecomment="" href="/mobileweb/comments/2397018/fp/15/?icid=hp_world_art_comment_h">Comments (467)</a> </div> <p>JERUSALEM -- Israel's prime minister says thousands of Africans who have infiltrated into Israel will be sent back home.</p> <p></p> <p>Benjamin Netanyahu declared Wednesday that Israel has halted the flow of African migrants into Israel over the past seven months. He spoke while visiting the fence Israel built on border with Egypt to keep migrants out.</p> <p>He said he will soon begin "repatriating the tens of thousands of infiltrators in Israel to their countries of origin."</p> <p></p> <p>About 60,000 Africans have entered Israel in recent years, some seeking asylum and others looking for work.</p> <p></p> <p>Sigal Rozen, whose group assists migrants, says it's unlikely Israel can repatriate them, since many come from conflict zones or countries that have no ties with Israel.</p> <p></p> <p>She says Netanyahu's pledge could be political posturing ahead of Jan. 22 elections.</p></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00901753654308155860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4238398526034464925.post-18259085523151126792012-12-30T11:11:00.000-05:002012-12-30T11:12:02.038-05:00Afro-Peruvians Ensnared in Poverty, Racism<div><div class="original-url"><a href="http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/64567-afro-peruvians-ensnared-in-poverty-racism">http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/64567-afro-peruvians-ensnared-in-poverty-racism</a><br><br></div><div id="article"> <!-- This node will contain a number of 'page' class divs. --> <div class="page" style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; "><h1 class="title">Afro-Peruvians Ensnared in Poverty, Racism</h1> <p>Peru has one of Latin America's fastest-growing economies, but Afro-Peruvians are still overwhelmingly mired in poverty.</p> <p>Those lucky enough to work in unskilled jobs their ancestors had three or four centuries ago -- as pallbearers, hotel bellhops and restaurant wait staff -- hope they may finally be on the cusp of meaningful change.</p> <p>"More than 34 percent of Afro-Peruvians are poor. And that means they do not have a chance to pursue higher education, which would help them break the cycle of poverty that sees them limited to a handful of jobs," said Rocio Munoz, an Afro-Peruvian affairs expert and researcher at the culture ministry.</p> <p>Black Peruvians, whose ancestors came from west Africa as slaves during the 1500-1820 Spanish colonial era to work in mines and on fields, today make up three to seven percent of Peru's 30 million people.</p> <p>At 47 percent, almost half of Peru's population is indigenous -- mostly ethnic Quechua and Aymara in the Andes, plus lowland Amazon basin natives. Another 37 percent are multi-ethnic with a mix of indigenous, white, black and/or Asian ancestors.</p> <p>Black Peruvians are well represented in the country's music and sports scenes -- especially wildly popular soccer. But they are largely, strangely absent from politics, television, business, diplomacy and the media.</p> <p>Even in the armed forces, it is uncommon to see many black Peruvians.</p> <p>Of all Afro-Peruvians, just a tiny six percent make it to university. And just two percent of those finish their degrees, Munoz said.</p> <p>Ironically, the ethnically white Peruvians who controlled politics and the country for centuries until less than two decades ago seem to have made big strides toward overcoming racism against their indigenous countrymen.</p> <p>They democratically elected their first indigenous president, Alejandro Toledo, in 2000. He went from being a shoeshine boy to becoming a U.S.-educated economist, to the presidency -- long unthinkable in Peru, where the moneyed and powerful kept "mountain people" as household staff and on separate beaches.</p> <p>Current President Ollanta Humala is also an indigenous military man turned politician from the highlands.</p> <p>But fading racism has been slower to benefit Peru's blacks, a small minority compared to its indigenous near-majority.</p> <p>In many of Lima's chicest restaurants, the dessert tray is brought around by black women in petticoats and headscarves recalling the colonial era.</p> <p>"This social categorization, which locks people of African heritage into certain service jobs, has its roots in slavery, and in the colonial era," Munoz said.</p> <p>"Even though we live in a democratic society now, these things have not changed. And dead people's families continue to seek black pallbearers as were de rigeur in the colonial era," she explained.</p> <p>In the capital's wealthiest neighborhoods, government campaigns against associating Afro-Peruvians and funerals have so far fallen on deaf ears.</p> <p>"A lot of our clients specifically ask for black pallbearers in the belief that that will make a burial more elegant or prestigious," said Alejandro Cano, who owns a funeral parlor in the upscale San Isidro neighborhood.</p> <p>"People who are looking for (black pallbearers in suits) are looking for excellent service," said Cano, arguing that: "there is nothing discriminatory there."</p> <p>Some of those affected appear to agree.</p> <p>Humberto Guerrero, in a tux and white gloves, said he is proud of his pallbearer-for-hire position.</p> <p>"People always say that they want (to hire) black pallbearers. And it is not to marginalize us but rather it's a custom that people just like," Guerrero said.</p> <p>"People think a black guy looks really elegant in a tux. And I don't feel discriminated against; it's my job, and I respect that."</p> <p>Relations between black and indigenous Peruvians have often been strained, largely because indigenous people saw blacks as a type of legacy of the colonial era.</p> <p>And the colonial era, from a Peruvian point of view, is already complicated by a love-hate relationship with Spain, from which an external culture was slapped on top of one that had been in Peru for millennia. It became the dominant one for centuries -- until the recent rise of Peruvian multiculturalism.</p> <p>Still, some progress has been made in recent years.</p> <p>The government does keep track of data on Afro-Peruvians to help on health and employment fronts, said Owan Lay, another culture ministry official.</p> <p>In 2009, under then president Alan Garcia, Peru became the first Latin American nation to apologize to black Peruvians for centuries of "abuse, exclusion and discrimination." It also acknowledged racism played a role in blocking their professional and social advancement.</p> <p>In 2011, Humala called for "social integration for all" and named Grammy-winning singer Susana Baca, who is black, as culture minister. She resigned later that year to resume touring.</p></div></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00901753654308155860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4238398526034464925.post-39183743800531002012-12-28T22:22:00.000-05:002012-12-28T22:27:31.272-05:00Brazil murder stats reflect racial divide<div><div class="original-url"><a href="http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/lifestyle/2012/11/29/brazil-murder-stats-reflect-racial-divide/">http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/lifestyle/2012/11/29/brazil-murder-stats-reflect-racial-divide/</a><br><br></div><div id="article"> <!-- This node will contain a number of 'page' class divs. --> <div class="page" style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; "><h1 class="title">Brazil murder stats reflect racial divide</h1> <p>The number of black homicide victims in Brazil grew by 29.8 percent between 2002 and 2010, to nearly 35,000, while murders of whites declined 25.5 percent to just over 14,000, the Presidential Bureau to Promote Racial Equality said Thursday.</p><p>The report, "Map of Violence 2012: The Color of Murder in Brazil," shows blacks are significantly more likely to be murdered in a nation where more than half the population claims African ancestors.</p><p>The authors of the study say the median annual number of murders in Brazil, roughly 30,000, is alarmingly high in light of the absence of ethnic or political strife in the South American nation.</p><p>"It is a volume of violent deaths much superior to that of many regions of the world that suffer armed conflicts, but what is most disturbing is the growing tendency of selective mortality," the study says.</p><p>"There is a unacceptable and growing association between homicides and the skin color of the victims," the authors add.</p><p>While the murder rate among white Brazilians is 15.5 per 100,000 residents, the comparable figure for people of African descent is 36. And for Afro-Brazilians between the ages of 12 and 21, the homicide rate is 72 per 100,000.</p><p>The ratio of black murder victims to whites in Brazil is 2.3 to 1. EFE</p></div></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00901753654308155860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4238398526034464925.post-59744923514925715142012-12-27T18:29:00.001-05:002012-12-27T18:29:53.878-05:00The Italian Paradox on Refugees - NYTimes.com<div><div class="original-url"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/27/world/europe/the-italian-paradox-on-refugees.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0">http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/27/world/europe/the-italian-paradox-on-refugees.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0</a><br><br></div><div id="article"> <!-- This node will contain a number of 'page' class divs. --> <div class="page" style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; "><h1 class="title">The Italian Paradox on Refugees</h1><div class="leading-image"><img src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/12/26/world/27iht-refugees_image/27iht-refugees_image-articleLarge.jpg" alt="" class="full-width"></div><p itemprop="articleBody"> ROME — The abandoned building on the outskirts of Rome, colloquially known as the Salaam Palace, was once a sparsely populated shelter where new arrivals from Africa — fleeing war, persecution and economic turmoil — squatted to create their own refuge. </p> <p itemprop="articleBody"> Over the years, scattered mattresses were joined by sloppily plastered plywood walls, slapdash doors and scavenged furniture. Today an irregular warren of cubbyholes includes a small restaurant and a common room. On a recent cold afternoon, a hammer clinked as a bathroom was added to a one-room home where an oven door was left open for heat. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> Today more than 800 refugees inhabit Salaam Palace, and its dilapidation and seeming permanence have become a vivid reminder of what its residents and others say is <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/italy/index.html?inline=nyt-geo" title="More news and information about Italy.">Italy</a>'s failure to assist and integrate those who have qualified for asylum under its laws. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> Salaam Palace and an expanding population in shantytowns elsewhere in Italy are the result of what refugee agencies say is an Italian paradox surrounding asylum seekers here. The country has a good record of granting asylum status, but a disgraceful follow-through, they say, characterized by an absence of resources and a neglect that adds unnecessary hardship to already tattered lives and is creating a potential tinderbox for social unrest. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> "Italy is quite good when in the asylum procedure, recognizing 40 percent, even up to 50 percent of applicants in some years," said Laura Boldrini, the spokeswoman in Italy for the U.N. high commissioner for refugees. "What is critical is what comes after." </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> Italy has only about 3,150 spots in its state-funded asylum protection system, where refugees receive government assistance. Waiting lists are astronomical. "If you're not lucky to get one of those, you're on your own," Ms. Boldrini said. "You have to find a way to support yourself, learn the language, get a house and a job." </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> That has certainly been the experience of those in Salaam Palace. Some have been living in the abandoned university building since early 2006, when it was occupied by a group of refugees with the help of an organized squatters' association. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> Most fled a life of war and hardship in <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/sudan/index.html?inline=nyt-geo" title="More news and information about Sudan.">Sudan</a> and the Horn of Africa. Nearly all have refugee status, or some form of protection, but they have been unable to find steady work in Rome. Italy's economic crisis has made the challenge all the harder. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> "We escaped one war to find another kind of war — 800 people crammed in a palazzo," said Yakub Abdelnabi, a resident of Salaam Palace who left Sudan in 2005. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> Last summer, the Council of Europe commissioner for human rights, Nils Muiznieks, visited Salaam Palace and was struck by the "destitute conditions" of its residents and "the near absence of an integration framework" for refugees in Italy, according to a report issued in September. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> Mr. Muiznieks "witnessed the shocking conditions in which the men, women and children were living in this building, such as one shower and one toilet shared by 250 persons," the report said. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> Apart from volunteers, the residents had "no guidance" in finding work, going to school or dealing with administrative burdens. "This has effectively relegated these refugees or other beneficiaries of international protection to the margins of society, with little prospect of improvement in their situation," the report said. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> To grant access to social assistance, the local authorities often demand documents that are impossible for the refugees to obtain. Occasional government-financed projects designed to remedy the situation have had negligible impact, residents said. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> Though immigrants have access to medical care, many are leery of navigating the labyrinthine national health system, which is why on a blustery December day medical students had volunteered to provide flu shots to some residents of the Salaam Palace in an improvised health clinic, amid cigarette butts and empty beer bottles. </p><p itemprop="articleBody"> "This is the worst time of the year, when the risk of epidemic is high," said Dr. Donatella D'Angelo, president of a volunteer association that provides weekly health care at Salaam Palace.</p></div></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00901753654308155860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4238398526034464925.post-88604041639449943212012-12-27T18:21:00.001-05:002012-12-27T18:21:55.107-05:00Ethiopian Immigrant Wins Lawsuit Against Israeli Employer<div><div class="original-url"><a href="http://www.ezega.com/News/NewsDetails.aspx?Page=heads&NewsID=3419">http://www.ezega.com/News/NewsDetails.aspx?Page=heads&NewsID=3419</a><br><br></div><div id="article"> <!-- This node will contain a number of 'page' class divs. --> <div class="page" style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; "><h1 class="title">Ethiopian Immigrant Wins Lawsuit Against Israeli Employer</h1><p><font><img alt="Israel" width="193" height="140" src="http://www.ezega.com/userfiles/Israel(1).jpg"><font>December, 24, 2012 - The Tel Aviv Labor Court last week ordered an Israeli man, <span>Saul Ben-Ami, to pay </span><span>NIS 71,000 ($19,000)</span> in compensation to his former employee <span>Awaka Yosef, an immigrant from Ethiopia, for referring to </span>him with the racist slur "kushi," Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Sunday. </font></font></p> <p itemprop="articleBody"><font>The incident reportedly began when Yosef, an eight-year veteran at a gardening company that employs 150 people, noticed that his wages had been lowered without notice. When Yosef challenged his boss about the discrepancy, Ben-Ami reportedly responded "Who are you, you <em>kushi</em>? Go home."</font></p> <p itemprop="articleBody"><font>The term <em>kushi</em> derives from the biblical Kingdom of Kush, which was located in Africa, south of Egypt. In modern Hebrew, the word has become a pejorative for dark-skinned people.</font></p> <p itemprop="articleBody"><font>Yosef, 51, said he was offended by the response and immediately resigned. However, he didn't let the matter slide, and after consulting with an attorney, the father of three decided to take his grievance to court.</font></p> <p itemprop="articleBody"><font>"When the manager called me a <em>kushi</em> I was very hurt," Yosef said. "It felt as though he was treating me like a dog, and so I decided to resign. I wasn't prepared to have him curse me and talk to me like that. I don't have to take it. Kudos to the judge for ruling in my favor."</font></p> <p itemprop="articleBody"><font>Ben-Ami denied that he had used the word, and even that he had lowered Yosef's wages. But after finding contradictions in his testimony, the court ruled that Yosef's wages had indeed been reduced unilaterally, that the term <em>kushi</em> was used to humiliate him, and that it was thus unreasonable to expect Yosef to remain at the company.</font></p> <p itemprop="articleBody"><font>"Such statements are grave, and they have no place in the workplace," wrote Judge Oren Segev in his decision. "It is a racist term that was intended to humiliate and degrade a man just because he is from the Ethiopian community and because he has dark skin."</font></p> <p itemprop="articleBody"><font>The court also ordered Ben-Ami to pay NIS 13,000 ($3,500) in court fees to Yosef, the report said.</font></p></div></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00901753654308155860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4238398526034464925.post-13515517720495637912012-12-27T18:19:00.001-05:002012-12-27T18:19:32.021-05:00Embracing the New Black Diversity<div><div class="original-url"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/jackie-copelandcarson/african-immigration_b_2353920.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/jackie-copelandcarson/african-immigration_b_2353920.html</a><br><br></div><div id="article"> <!-- This node will contain a number of 'page' class divs. --> <div class="page" style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; "><h1 class="title">Beyond Kwanzaa: Embracing the New Black Diversity - The Huffington Post</h1><div style="font-weight: bold; ">Beyond Kwanzaa: Embracing the New Black Diversity</div> <div disablecomment="" style="font-weight: bold; "> <a disablecomment="" href="/mobileweb/comments/2353920/fp/42/?icid=hp_black-voices_art_comment_h">Comments (3)</a> </div> <div>For many Americans, our country's African heritage becomes real for one week every year during the December 26th-January 1st <a href="http://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org" target="_hplink">Kwanzaa</a> celebration. This worthy holiday is a way to teach and express African-Americans' history of struggle and success. However, we need to move beyond this week-long celebration to a fuller recognition of Africans' ongoing contributions to our community and nation.</div> <p></p> <div>In the past 20 years there has been an almost <a href="http://www.migrationpolicy.org/pubs/AfricanMigrationUS.pdf" target="_hplink">200 percent increase</a> in African immigration to the United States. Today, there are more than 1.5 million African-born black people in America. More than 3.5 million Americans self-identify as members of the new African diaspora, meaning that they were born to at least one parent who was born in Africa. In some metropolitan areas like Washington, D.C., Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Los Angeles, Africans make up a third of the black population. Most Africans in the U.S. are from Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt, Ghana, and Kenya with many other countries represented as well. The most prominent example of the new African diaspora is President Barack Obama -- the American-born son of a Kenyan immigrant.</div> <p></p> <p>Unfortunately, new Africans in America are subjected to modern versions of the very same distorted stereotypes imposed on black people since the country's founding. Mainstream media still promote the image of Africa as "The Dark Continent" defined by war, famine and poverty. Africans are depicted as corrupt, inferior victims needing the guidance of benevolent, more enlightened Americans to solve their problems. </p> <p></p> <p>The reality of Africans in America could not be further from the mainstream narrative. Africans in America come from all walks of life, including courageous, poor refugees escaping political persecution in war torn countries, as well as affluent, accomplished professionals working in every imaginable field. </p> <p></p> <div>A recent <a href="http://search.aol.com/aol/search?q=Stephen+Klineberg+rice+university+nigeria&s_it=spelling&v_t=sny_ie7" target="_hplink">study</a> by Rice University shows that Nigerian-Americans are the most educated group in America. According to research by the <a href="http://www.aracorporation.org/files/14._africans_most_educated.pdf" target="_hplink">Journal of Blacks in Higher Education</a>, African immigrants are more likely to be college educated than any other immigrant group. In fact, the study shows, African immigrants are also more highly educated than any other U.S.-born ethnic group.</div> <p></p> <div>Despite <a href="http://www.migrationpolicy.org/pubs/AfricanMigrationUS.pdf" target="_hplink">high levels of education</a> many African immigrants, like many Americans of African descent, face racism; however, they are also subject to discrimination based on their national origin. A largely invisible minority, with few exceptions such as the efforts of <a href="http://www.blackalliance.org" target="_hplink">Black Alliance for Just Immigration</a>, African immigrant issues are largely excluded from immigrant and civil rights advocacy and foundation funding.</div> <p></p> <div>There are many meaningful ways to learn more about and connect with America's new black diversity. The arts are an important vehicle. Africa diaspora leaders are using the arts and media in creative ways to express their own visions of Africa. For example next generation filmmaker Zina Zaro-Wiwa's acclaimed "<a href="http://www.thisismyafrica.com/about.html " target="_hplink">This is My Africa</a>" and video exhibit "<a href="http://www.pulitzerarts.org/events/public-programs/saro-wiwa/ " target="_hplink">Progress of Love</a> " are riveting expressions of African emotional life that work against the tendency to dehumanize and stereotype Africans. Pan-African and black film festivals throughout the country educate about the rich cultures and public affairs of Africa and its worldwide diaspora. </div> <p></p> <div><a href="www.applauseafrica.com" target="_hplink">Applause Africa</a>, an innovative multi-media company, publishes a magazine and website that is fast becoming the <em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebony_(magazine)" target="_hplink">Ebony</a></em> of America's new Africa diaspora, highlighting its diversity and accomplishments. Applause Africa just debuted the <a href="http://www.applauseafrica.com/ada/411." target="_hplink">African Diaspora Awards </a>in New York City to honor the inspiring contributions of the new African diaspora. The equivalent of the <a href="http://www.naacp.org/pages/naacp-image-awards " target="_hplink">NAACP Image Awards</a>, superstar Grammy winner and humanitarian, <a href="http://www.ungei.org/infobycountry/247_2470.html" target="_hplink">Angelique Kidjo</a>, and acclaimed CNN journalist, <a href="http://http://www.cencom.org/ecom-prodshow/946.html" target="_hplink">Lola Ogunniake</a> were among the thirteen outstanding honorees.</div> <p></p> <p></p> <p>Black in America today is not -- and never really has been -- just African-Americans. Since the 1500s, black America has included the rich ethnic diversity of African-descent people from the continent as well as the Caribbean, Latin America, even Europe and Asia. </p> <p></p> <div>Although we come from diverse backgrounds, we share much in common. Our communities have among the world's highest rates of poverty, infant and maternal mortality, and HIV/AIDS. At the same time, we have among the highest levels of <a href="http://www.wkkf.org/news/articles/2012/01/communities-of-color-find-more-prominent-role-within-philanthropy-sector.aspx" target="_hplink">charitable giving</a> in the country -- a <a href="http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTDECPROSPECTS/Resources/476882-1157133580628/AfricaStudyEntireBook.pdf" target="_hplink">tradition of philanthropy</a> that defines both African-American and African cultures. In 2010 alone America's new and old African diaspora gave an astounding $23 billion to strengthen black and other communities in the U.S. and Africa. </div> <p></p> <p>Africa lives across America's backyards. Move beyond Kwanzaa's abstract notions of Africa in 2013. Here's how. </p> <p></p> <p>Use the resources mentioned here to begin learning about our diversity and the long history of African contributions to America, including today's African immigrants to the U.S. </p> <p></p> <p>Build community across our diversity. Although we may have been born in different places, we share a common African past -- no matter how distant -- and a destiny bound in America's future. We can find unity across our diversity to benefit all our communities.</p> <p></p> <p>Marshal our rich economy of giving to address our common challenges in America and humanity's shared African Motherland. Giving is a tie that also binds diverse African diaspora cultures. Giving together activates Kwanzaa's Pan-African cultural principles to make a practical difference to our communities.</p> <p></p> <p>AWDF USA can help. Created by a coalition of Americans and Africans, AWDF USA is devoted to building an American Giving Movement to uplift Africa and its diaspora.</p> <p></p> <div>Learn more about our <a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4pBAd0PBTicMGw3ZV9rdlFZUlU/edit?pli=1" target="_hplink">Mother Africa Campaign </a>to transform Kwanzaa to a new future for African peoples everywhere.</div> <p></p> <p>We look forward to hearing from you and contact us at <a href="mailto:info@usawdf.org">info@usawdf.org</a> or <a href="tel:408-634-4837" x-apple-data-detectors="true" x-apple-data-detectors-type="telephone" x-apple-data-detectors-result="3">408-634-4837</a> to learn more.</p></div></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00901753654308155860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4238398526034464925.post-29353475554503873822012-12-23T21:39:00.001-05:002012-12-23T21:39:41.285-05:00On International Migrants Day, Black Voices Call For Immigration Reform With Racial Equity<div><div class="original-url"><a href="http://www.blacknews.com/news/black_immigration_network_immigrants_rights_debate101.shtml">http://www.blacknews.com/news/black_immigration_network_immigrants_rights_debate101.shtml</a><br><br></div><div id="article"> <!-- This node will contain a number of 'page' class divs. --> <div class="page" style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; "><h1 class="title">On International Migrants Day, Black Voices Call For Immigration Reform With Racial Equity</h1><p><b><font>On International Migrants Day, Black Voices Call For Immigration Reform With Racial Equity</font></b></p> <p><span><i>-- National network of grassroots groups brings more black voices to immigrant rights debate --</i> </span> </p> <p> <span><img src="http://www.blacknews.com/images/black_immigration_network.gif" width="150" height="149"></span> </p><p><span><b>Nationwide</b> (December 17, 2012) -- In recognition of International Migrants Day on December 18, 2012, the BLACK IMMIGRATION NETWORK, a national network of African American and black immigrant organizations announce its collaboration to uplift black voices in the immigrant rights debate. The network cites the need for an understanding of racial justice as a key principle for immigration reform and for the contemporary struggle for racial equity for all people of color. </span> </p><p><span> The BLACK IMMIGRATION NETWORK (BIN) was conceived through the efforts of Oakland-based organization Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), the Chicago-based Center for New Community's Which Way Forward (WWF) Program, and American Friend Services Committee's Third World Coalition (TWC) with particular help from their Northeast Regional offices. They began their efforts in 2009 and have now grown to involve over 20 organizations nationally and several hundred black participants in a variety of convenings and advocacy efforts over the years.</span> </p><p> </p><p><span>The observance of International Migrants Day is significant to the BLACK IMMIGRATION NETWORK'S analysis of how globalization has changed the political and economic landscape - in the United States of America and throughout the world. Various international policies, wars, corporate greed and environmental conditions ultimately displace millions of people and force them to migrate to other countries in order to survive. </span> </p><p><span> The BLACK IMMIGRATION NETWORK recognizes that often times the same types of oppressive laws and culture that historically, and currently disenfranchises African American communities is gaining momentum and finding more fuel through its attack on immigrant communities in the United States. The coded language that is often hate-filled, coupled with anti-immigrant racial profiling laws, such as Alabama's HB 56, and other practices encourages violence that threatens both African American communities and immigrants of color. Sadly these laws and practices do not comply with United Nations Human Rights Conventions such as those protecting the Rights of Migrants or the Convention to End all forms of Racial Discrimination. </span> </p><p><span> In its quest for racial justice, BLACK IMMIGRATION NETWORK (BIN), has also observed that current immigration policies and practices discriminate based on race and class. This discriminatory practice adversely impact immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean and other Afro-Latinos in the Americas. To this end BIN promotes the leadership of black immigrant and African American leaders in the struggle for immigrant rights to ensure that as Comprehensive Immigration Reform is being debated - black concerns are not further marginalized. </span> </p><p><span> Trina Jackson of Network for Immigrants and African Americans in Solidarity, based in Boston, MA explains, "Our challenge as a movement is to turn the common ancestry and the common struggles of African Americans and black immigrants into concerted advocacy and a common action agenda benefiting all of our communities." </span> </p><p><span> The network is rapidly expanding as organizations and individuals across the nation realize that black communities care about immigration. And more importantly that black communities are always undeniably impacted by immigration. From re-framing the notion that "immigrants are stealing jobs" to educating black communities about the ways in which corporations and governments are pitting our communities against one another to weaken our power. BIN is poised to have these important educational conversations about race as well as work on policy initiatives that will benefit black communities. </span> </p><p><span> Some of the organizations represented in BIN's membership include the Highlander Research and Education Center, Families for Freedom, Moving Forward Gulf Coast, Priority African Network, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, Florida Immigrant Coalition, Casa de Maryland, Center for New Community and Black Alliance for Just Immigration. Its leadership structure includes a national steering committee and a host of working groups, including a group specifically focused on Family Reunification Visas for Haitians and a working group focused on Education and Training. </span> </p><p><span> The Black Immigration Network (BIN) is a kinship of organizations and individuals connecting, training and building towards policy and cultural shifts for a racial justice and migrant rights agenda. BIN's vision is that people of African descent unite for racial justice and migrant rights to achieve social, economic and political power. </span> </p><p><span> You can learn more about the network by visiting: <a href="http://www.blackimmigration.net" target="_blank">www.blackimmigration.net</a></span></p></div></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00901753654308155860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4238398526034464925.post-74694259831361267602012-12-23T21:23:00.001-05:002012-12-23T21:23:57.895-05:00How the Africans Became Black<div><div class="original-url"><a href="http://m.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/12/how-the-africans-became-black/266222/">http://m.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/12/how-the-africans-became-black/266222/</a><br><br></div><div id="article"> <!-- This node will contain a number of 'page' class divs. --> <div class="page" style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; "><h1 class="title">How the Africans Became Black</h1> <p><i>A Liberian-American reflects on the experiences of Africans who have moved to the United States, a growing community that accounts for 3 percent of the U.S.'s foreign-born population.</i></p> <img alt="liberia banner.jpg" src="http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/international/liberia%20banner.jpg" class="reader-image-large"><p>Yama Sumo a former refugee from civil war in Liberia, sits by her sidewalk vegetable stand outside a housing project in the Park Hill section of Staten Island in New York City on September 20, 2007. (Mike Segar/Reuters)</p><p></p> <p>After leaving my nine-to-five job, I was led to a New York Immigration Coalition job posting. While waiting in the coalition's lobby for an interview, a copy of a popular <i>TIME Magazine </i>cover caught my eye. "WE ARE AMERICANS," the cover read. The photo on the cover featured faces of various brown and yellow immigrants, eager and hopeful, representing both the spirit of America's revolutionary history and its inevitable future. I was remembering my own family's immigration when I stopped to wonder: <i>Where are the Africans?</i></p> <p>U.S. immigration debates are overwhelmingly centered on immigrants from Latin America. Proportionately, Mexicans and central Americans far outnumber other immigrant groups in the United States. According to a Migration Policy Institute study, since 1970, "a period during which the overall U.S. immigration population increased four-fold, the Mexican and central American population increased by a factor of 20." In a subsequent study on black immigration, the same organization reported that black African immigrants account for 3 percent of the total U.S. foreign-born population. </p> <p>Like their Latin American counterparts, African immigrants keep a low profile in an effort to avoid humiliation, deportation, and loss of work. Many of them, whether accidentally or otherwise, wind up blending in with African-American culture. But however closely they may identify with black America, they, too, are immigrants.</p> <p><b>THE IRISH</b></p> <p>I recently read a book titled <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Irish-Became-White-Routledge-Classics/dp/0415963095">How The Irish Became White</a> </i>by Noel Ignatiev. Ignatiev traces this nation's white solidarity to the arrival of Irish settlers in New York in 1840, the country's subsequent disassociation from its African-American working class -- and ultimately, from the African-American race.</p> <p>According to Ignatiev, Irish Catholics, then known as the blacks of Europe, came to America as a disenfranchised, oppressed race under the English Penal Laws. The greatest voice for Catholic emancipation at the time, Daniel O'Connell, urged the new immigrants to continue the struggle for equality in America by showing support for abolitionists. Instead, the Irish realized that discrimination against them by white elites was linked at least in part to their working, sleeping and living closely alongside blacks of similar economic and social status. </p> <p>In order to stand out from blacks economically, Irish immigrants had to monopolize their low-wage jobs and keep free Northern blacks from joining unions during the labor movement. And in order to disassociate socially, they had to consent to active participation in the oppression of the black race, embracing whiteness and the system that disenfranchised and justified an ungovernable hatred toward African-Americans.</p> <p>Ignatiev includes an 1843 letter from Daniel O'Connell: "Over the broad Atlantic I pour forth my voice, saying, come out of such land, you Irishmen; or, if you remain, and dare countenance the system of slavery that is supported there, we will recognize you as Irishmen no longer."</p> <p>The color of their skin saved them, but has also nearly obliterated a once vibrant cultural identity so that today I know no Irishmen. I have friends of Irish descent, former coworkers who mentioned the occasional Irish grandfather or associates who gesture toward familiarity of the lost heritage over empty pints on St. Patrick's Day -- but the Irishmen are now white, and the Irishmen are now gone.</p> <p>Race in America is often thought of as a two-toned, immutable palette. No matter how early their ancestors arrived, Americans of Asian descent, Americans from Spanish-speaking countries, and Americans from the Middle East will always be considered foreign, it sometimes seems. For black immigrants who arrive as neither African-American nor white, affiliating with the African-American identity is often easier. Being considered African-American in this country is still better in most instances than being considered an immigrant. </p> <p>Much as Irish immigrants benefited from the white racial umbrella, black immigrants are benefiting from a black racial umbrella. They cleave to African-American culture and identity groups and remain silent or unheard in the larger immigration dialogue. In the context of the immigration debate, while many of the prominent faces of those in need are often brown, it's worth remembering that the term "immigrant" captures black Africans, too. At the same time, black immigrants and their children are also helping to redefine what it means to be black in this country.</p> <p><b>ON BEING BLACK</b></p> <p>When I was stopped in Arizona at a checkpoint during a midnight drive from Los Angeles to Houston, I was not asked if I was born in this country or if I was of legal status. The officer glanced at my license and simply asked me where I was going.</p> <p>"Home," I answered. "Back to Houston." </p> <p>I sounded like him and looked like about 14 percent of this country -- so the officer let me pass. Someone like Natalie Portman -- a white woman, but born in Jerusalem and an immigrant to the United States -- might have had the same experience. </p> <p>If Jose Antonio Vargas, the Pulitzer-winning journalist whose (brown) picture on the cover of TIME hung on the wall of the New York Immigration Coalition, were stopped that night, he may have been interrogated with questions, squeezed for identification, for proof that he deserved to be here. How just is that?</p> <p>My family left Liberia in 1990 amid the country's first civil war. We were among tens of thousands that successfully escaped to America. Five-years-old at the time, a green and frightened young immigrant, I moved with my growing family to three different states before settling in Houston in 1994. By then, my accent was gone. I pronounced the r's at the ends of my words, I knew the radio music my elementary peers sang along to and I could quote the latest episodes of "TGIF." By 2000, my only reference to Liberia, other than my parents, annual family reunions and a war scar underneath my right foot, was my name. I said it and people asked if I was African. If I did not say it, they could not know. We were the only African family in our small Texan town and as far as the residents were concerned -- we were black. It was not until I moved to New York for college that my answer of "Spring, Texas" when people asked me where I was from was unacceptable. "No," they would say, "where are you <i>from from?" </i>Oh. Liberia.</p> <p>Like a small percentage of Liberians, my recent ancestors were descendants of American slaves. A reverend by the name of June Moore immigrated to Liberia with his wife Adeline Moore in 1871. After settling in Arthington, Liberia, Wallace Moore, one of June's and Adeline's three sons, had a son named David Moore, who had a son named Herbert Moore, who had a son named Augustus Moore Sr. -- my father. </p> <p>But growing up in America as a black or white person encourages the abandonment of such history and the adoption of "black" or "white" American culture as one's own. Despite my Liberian heritage, my interactions outside of my house during my developmental years took place as though I were, culturally, an African-American -- not an African. From first grade through high school, I received an American public-school education in which all mentions of people who looked like me were African-American. I took ownership of the culture because otherwise, I did not exist.</p> <p>When I was 11 years old, I was called a nigger at a neighborhood corner store by a shopkeeper who thought my friends and I were stealing from him when six or so of us entered his store after track practice. The word was foreign to me, as was his motivation in using it. My friends and I cried as we were chased out of the store, but even then I knew their tears came from a different, more familiar place.</p> <p>In the same way we respond to someone with white skin -- whether that person is a white European or a white Hispanic -- so America responds to people with black skin, no matter if they have been here for 20 years or 200 years. Being black in America is accompanied by a stupefying consciousness, a sudden, life-long awareness of your skin, your nose, your hair -- all those things that, ironically, we are taught do not matter at all.</p> <p><b>PASSING</b></p> <p>Still, developing an awareness of all that being black in this country may entail does not automatically mean that young black immigrants are accepted by their peers. The young immigrant is usually subject to other kinds of bullying. National Geographic programming, comedians, international news all showcase Africans as savage, disease-ridden, ignorant, and poor. As a young student in this country, an African student, there are few greater burdens than psychologically balancing the public's perception of Africa against what the immigrant knows to be true. </p> <p>Social pressures cause a grave, hopeless desire to blend in with peers, even if the price is total rejection of the foods, music and languages of that child's home country. The easiest avenue for assimilation into American culture, for young black immigrants, is the assimilation into African-American culture. African immigrants are not the only group to do this -- Carribeans and black Hispanics may do this as well, all to ease the burdens of cultural ostracism. </p> <p>These young people eventually learn to socially navigate both African-American and their home culture. This passing of black immigrants and first-generation black Americans as members of African-American culture results in a cross-cultural black identity, where the individual is equally invested in both African-American interests and the empowerment of their (or their parent's) home country and the many issues that affect its native sons.</p> <p> </p><p>* * *</p> <p></p> <p>My father is a proud man. All of my uncles are proud men. They wear Liberia and her stories on their shoulders and made consistent attempts growing up to engage us in her music and history. Still, my father was as careful as he was proud. My siblings and I were reminded to always obey the law, never get in trouble, to fear punishment and respect authority. The immigration struggles that face many Hispanics in this country -- fear of prison, fear of deportation or separation from family -- are more intensified among Africans, because many of us, my family included, left countries in conflict or at war. Drawing attention to your immigrant status means raising the possibility of having to return to a country whose economy and infrastructure may barely function. </p><p>Ours is also a numbers game. As 3 percent of a foreign-born population, African influence in the immigration movement is low. Language barriers keep some black immigrants from becoming activists. It's not just about English; at one information session in the Bronx, instructions and information on legal clinic appointments were given only in Spanish, even though 10 percent of the attendants were black immigrants who mostly spoke French. The Francophones had to consult with one another to figure out what the session leader was saying.</p> <p>Some black immigrants are vocal and have received help from a few quarters. To people of countries beset by armed conflict, natural disaster, or other circumstances that would make going home unsafe, the United States grants what's called Temporary Protected Status (TPS). TPS gives certain foreign nationals a special opportunity to live in America, to work, to pay taxes, and to own homes and businesses. Haitians benefited from this after the 2010 earthquake, and Liberians were also beneficiaries.</p> <p>But in 2007, an estimated 4,000 Liberians were told that their special status would expire on September 30 at midnight. On September 12, however, President Bush signed a bill that gave the Liberians permission to stay another 18 months and continue working. That reprieve has since been granted 4 times; yet every year these Liberians -- some with children who are American citizens, homeowners, and taxpayers -- face the threat of deportation. </p> <p>Liberian nationals, with the help of The Universal Human Rights International Group and community associations led and managed by fellow Liberian immigrants, continue to lobby Congress for permanent residency. Michael Capuano, a Democratic U.S. congressman from Massachusetts, is a co-sponsor of the Liberian Refugee Immigration Protection Act. If passed, the bipartisan bill will allow Liberians with TPS to apply for permanent residency, something they are not currently allowed to do. </p> <p>You may have passed a Liberian covered by TPS today. You may have thought that he was just black.</p> <p>What the Irish were to white identity in the 19th century, so are African immigrants to African-American identity today. Black immigrants have a meaningful contribution to make to the immigration debate; for Jose Antonio Vargas and the other brown faces on that TIME cover, the black immigrant voice may be all the push reformists need.</p></div></div></div><div><div><br></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00901753654308155860noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4238398526034464925.post-70099084192073575812012-12-23T21:21:00.001-05:002012-12-23T21:21:34.432-05:00Thirteen Ethiopian stowaways nabbed in Tanzania<div><div class="original-url"><a href="http://www.globaltimes.cn/">http://www.globaltimes.cn/</a><br><br></div><div id="article"> <!-- This node will contain a number of 'page' class divs. --> <div class="page" style="font-family: Palatino, Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.4; "><h1 class="title">Thirteen Ethiopian stowaways nabbed in Tanzania - <a href="http://Globaltimes.cn">Globaltimes.cn</a></h1>Tanzanian immigration authorities on Wednesday arrested 13 Ethiopian stowaways in its northern region while they were en route for "greener pastures" in Europe and the United States.<br><br>Arusha Regional Immigration Officer Daniel Namomba said the Ethiopian teenagers, waiting for travel arrangement to the intended destinations, were arrested in a house located on the outskirts of Arusha city.<br><br>"We have discovered that the arrested aliens were on transit to South Africa as a way to Europe and the United States in search of greener pastures," he said.<br><br>He called upon Tanzanians to help identify strangers in their neighborhoods to curb the human trafficking business.<br><br>In June this year, 43 Ethiopians were found dead in an air- tight container near Dodoma, the capital of Tanzania, en route to South Africa.<br><br>Arusha-based immigration department also revealed that cases of illegal immigrants have been declining lately with only 88 aliens being arrested between January and June this year.<br><br>"Out of the 88 arrested illegal immigrants there were 57 Kenyans, eight Ethiopians, five Ugandans, four Sri-Lankans, three Somalis, three Congolese and two Canadians," Namomba said, adding that the rest were individuals from Italy, Pakistan, Niger, the Comoros, India and Nigeria.<br><br>In 2011, the immigration department arrested 328 illegal immigrants with Kenyans accounting for 153 of the total figure, followed by Somalis, Ethiopians, Ugandans and Pakistanis.</div></div></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00901753654308155860noreply@blogger.com0