Julie Driscoll: Ben Carson has proven that the new savior of the GOP is kinda like the old savior of the GOP – bigoted, offensive, with a background of violence toward others, and drowning in his own gaffes.
Free Film Screening: “On These Shoulders We Stand” Dec 7th
By
Free Documentary Film Screening and Discussion “ON THESE SHOULDERS WE STAND” You are invited to join us at a free screening of Glenne McElhinney’s documentary, “On These Shoulders We Stand,” about LGBT civil rights in the 60s and 70s in Los Angeles. After the screening a panel of local community activists including Wes Jo and [...]
Sharia Is Coming! Sharia Is Coming!
By
Tom Hall: the Fundagelical fear of Sharia rests on a misunderstanding of our nation’s fascinating history of changing legal systems.
Same-Sex Marriage Ban: Bigotry Isn’t Only a Southern Brew
By
Sheria Reid: Thirty-one states have amended their constitutions to declare that marriage is between a man and a woman. Unless the South has cloned itself, this problem extends way beyond the South.
The Genius of Barack Obama: Why We Must Organize Independently to keep Hope of Change Alive
By
Mark Naison: Together, the President’s actions cemented my conviction that he was one of the most brilliant politicians I have seen in my lifetime, equaled only by Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan, and surpassing even his sometimes rival, sometimes ally Bill Clinton.
Ranters Run Rampant
By
Steve Hochstadt: Angry ranters are all over the web. The anonymity of virtual communication encourages their vituperation. The racist, know-nothing, jingoist language of online political commentators would be shocking if expressed in person.
Using Blacks For Saving America from Gay Marriage
By
Irene Monroe: As African Americans, we continue to experience the harm that religion-based bigotry causes, especially concerning the civil rights issue of same-sex marriage.
LA City’s Arizona Boycott Needs Teeth
By
Javier Gonzalez: It is unconscionable that a city as diverse as Los Angeles claims to be so progressive yet chose to pass a resolution condemning and boycotting Arizona it perhaps never intended to follow through on.
On Visiting an Unwinnable War
By
David Swanson: If Afghanistan is to have peace, Galtung believes, it will need a loose federation of governments within and a confederation of allied countries without, including countries like Pakistan and Iran.
Anti-Immigrant Leader Spearheading Effort to Oust Sheriff Dupnik
By
Andrea Nill: The focus of Dupnik’s controversial statements was not immigration. However, it is no coincidence that Americans Against Immigration Amnesty is going after one of the most vocal critics of Arizona’s immigration law.
It’s Nonsensical
By
Berry Craig: Never before have so few with so much promised to take away so much from so many and then laugh their asses off as the so many with so little vote for the so few with so much.
Human Nature = Prejudice
By
Adam Eran: Vedantam suggests education, rather than confrontation, is what gets us beyond prejudice. The Obama presidential run ignored the obviously bigotry coming from his opponent’s proxies, and suggested, without recrimination, that we give Obama a chance. That tactic, not Reverend Wright’s understandable anger, was what worked.
Why Won’t the FCC Treat Hate Speech the Same As Foul Language?
By
Sylvia Moore: It seems to be far easier to punish a broadcaster for one f-bomb dropped on the air, than it is if the same on-air personality unleashed a tirade of bigoted garbage.
Andrew Breitbart and Post Racial America
By
Mario Solis-Marich: The swift reaction of the Obama administration in the notorious incident of Shirley Sherrod is an indication that the fear of the accusation of racism against white Americans has spread into official Washington.
Coffee Time: Reason, Bigotry, and Tea Party Angst
By
Charles D. Hayes: Both liberals and conservatives choose relating over reasoning at times, but research shows that conservatives place much more value on in-group loyalty than liberals do. There is plenty of research data to back up this assertion; one doesn’t have to resort to anecdotal evidence of flag waving and lapel pens, although it’s hard not to notice such behavior.
Immigrants, African Americans, and the Struggle for Civil Rights
By
Michele Waslin: Today, most Americans are familiar with the Brown v. Board of Education decision. However, the link between Mexican-Americans and African-Americans in the struggle for desegregation is not well known. The Mendez case and the relationship between the two cases is an important piece of U.S. history that deserves to be more widely acknowledged.
Cuéntame: Facebooking Teabagger Bigots
By
Berry Craig: Caballero also said that “From calling Mexicans ‘filthy, stinking animals,’ to listening the likes of Tom Tancredo and Sarah Palin deliver hateful speech after hateful speech, to the increased use of violence in their words and actions, Teabaggers have come out in full force against our community.”
School Secretary Fired for Speaking Spanish to Parents
By
Andrea Nill: Ana Mateo, a bilingual school secretary, has filed a lawsuit against her former employer, Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, claiming that her civil rights were violated after she was allegedly fired for continuing to speak Spanish to parents.
Pat Robertson’s Haitian Theodicy
By
Irene Monroe: While scientists explain Haiti’s recent natural disaster as an earthquake due to a fault it sits on along the border between two large tectonic plates – the North American plate to the north, and the Caribbean plate to the south – that slowly slide horizontally past each other, Robinson explains the disaster as “Something [that] happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it.”
Out of My Black Church, Into the Streets
By
I have faith – and I have faith in America. That is why I am marching to support President Obama in his goals of creating a more perfect union for all of America – and to support our legislators in passing legislation that will save all of our children from religion-based bigotry.
Empathy, the Truth Behind the Hypocrisy
By
The Republicans are searching through Judge Sotomayor’s old speeches and party conversations to find trash to dump on her in their talk radio slime sessions. For honest people, it is more important to look at and consider what she actually said in legal decisions she wrote while she’s been a judge, deciding cases. When it [...]
Bigotry Still Rules
By
In the summer of 2006 I attended the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard. One of the guest presenters was 95-year-old Johnnie Carr, the woman who took over the Montgomery Improvement Association in 1956 after the successful Montgomery bus boycott when Martin Luther King, Jr. went [...]
When They Drove Old Dixie Down
By
They should have played “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” when Barak Obama was elected president of the United States. It’s a song about a defining moment in the Civil War that saw the old South and all that it stood for going down to defeat. They should have put the version by Joan [...]
The Profits They Make from Attacking Freedom
By
by Tom Hall – In earlier essays, I talked about how a group of for-profit businessmen was promoting Proposition 8 (Proposition Hate), the anti-gay marriage measure to write bigotry into the California Constitution. I pointed out some of their hypocricies and dishonesties. But I didn’t talk much about their finances.
We Are All Gay
By
Bible or no Bible, the bigotry of opposing gay marriage obstructs our overall pursuit for equality. When I was many years younger, I had shared with a group of men how I was bothered that a woman I was attracted to thought I was gay. Most of them nodded and shared their past insecurities whenever [...]
Friday Feedback: Julia H. Comments on “Lipsticked Pit Bulls: Orange Jumpsuit Better Idea”
By
Every Friday the LA Progressive features a comment that was particularly noteworthy. This week we are featuring a comment that was submitted in response to “Lipsticked Pit Bulls: Orange Jumpsuit Better Idea,” by Denis Campbell. Here’s Julia’s comment: The McCain/Palin ticket does not stand for “country first” when they criticize the many millions of American [...]
(Proto)Typical White Denial: Reflections on Racism and Uncomfortable Realities
By
Whites Deny Racism Continues to Exist ot long ago, after I had written an article in which I discussed white denial–the tendency for most white folks to reject the notion that racism is still a significant obstacle for people of color in the U.S.–I received an e-mail from a white man who insisted that my [...]
PCL offers monthly Open House Events on the 2nd Saturday at 2pm and 3rd Thursday at 6pm. Click here to learn more.
Friday Feedback: Same-Sex Marriage Ban Bigotry
This week, Reggie Brown comments on Sheria Reid’s article, “Same-Sex Marriage Ban: Bigotry Isn’t Only a Southern Brew” which addresses the banning of same-sex marriage in 31 states.