In the wake of the police killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, many mainstream media outlets featured guests who shifted the focus from police brutality to “black-on-black” violence. FBI statistics show that intra-racial homicide is high for both blacks (90%) and whites (83%), so it’s puzzling when people bring up black-on-black homicide as if it’s a pathology endemic to black people. … Read More
As unrest erupts from Oakland to Egypt, there’s one weapon of war that has come to define the militarized police state: tear gas. And while a St. Louis judge ruled recently that limits must be placed on the use of tear gas in Ferguson, he didn’t rule that tear gas should only be implemented as a last resort. Around the country, contingents … Read More
Housing discrimination against African-Americans, also known as redlining, has long been a form of institutional racism in the post Jim Crow era. Under the Federal Housing Act, federal loans were systematically denied to African-Americans, which helped create ghettos and further segregated blacks from whites. Ferguson is just one example among many which employed the practice. The latent effects of racism are rooted … Read More
PBS’ United States of Secrets is a stunning, must watch documentary covering the detailed history of the post 9/11 NSA mass surveillance program. The two part series lets state officials prop up the narrative that such spying is needed amidst a ‘War on Terror’, but juxtaposes their rhetoric with stories from NSA whistleblowers’ who were targeted for speaking out. Incidentally, … Read More
The city of Boston was shaken last year when its marathon was tragically bombed, leaving three people dead and 264 others injured. The alleged mastermind behind the deadly attacks, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was killed in a shootout with Boston police. His little brother and alleged co-perpetrator, Dzhohar, is now awaiting trial and will potentially face execution.Amidst the insanity ensuing from last year’s … Read More
