Repost: Black History Month: Shirley Chisholm

In 1972, thirty-seven years before Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, there was Shirley Chisholm. Black, Female. Running for president.

Shirley Chisholm was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1924, but was just three, when she was sent to live with her grandmother on a farm in Barbados. It was there that she received much of her primary education; the Barbadian school system stressed the traditional British teachings of reading, writing, and history. Chisholm credits much of her educational successes to this well-rounded early education.

Chisholm returned to New York when she was ten, during the height of the Great Depression. Life was not easy for the Chisholm’s in New York, and Shirley's parents sacrificed greatly for their eight children. Chisholm attended New York public schools and was able to compete well in the mainly white classrooms. She attended Girls' High School in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn and won tuition scholarships to several distinguished colleges. However, unable to afford the room and board, and at the urging of her parents ,she decided to live at home and attend Brooklyn College.

While studying to be a teacher, Chisholm became active in several campus and community groups, developed an interest in politics and learned the arts of organizing and fund-raising. She developed a deep resentment toward the role of women in local politics, which, at the time, consisted mostly of staying in the background and playing a secondary role to their male equals. Women were secretaries, and got the coffee, for men who ran for office. Chisholm, through campus politics and her work with the NAACP, found a way for her voice, her opinions, to be heard.

Graduating with honors from Brooklyn College in 1946, Chisholm began work as a nursery school teacher and later as a director of schools for early childhood education. She became politically, and vocally, active with the Democratic Party, earning a reputation as one who challenged the traditional roles of women, African Americans, and the poor. In 1949, she married Conrad Chisholm, and the couple settled in Brooklyn.

After a successful career as a teacher, Chisholm decided to run for the New York State Assembly. Her ideals were perfect for the times; it was the mid-60s, the civil rights movement in full swing, and all across America activists were working for equal civil rights for everyone, regardless of race. In 1964 Chisholm was elected to the assembly.

During her service in the assembly Chisholm sponsored fifty bills, but only eight passed. One of the successful bills she supported provided assistance for poor students to go on to higher education, while another provided employment insurance coverage for personal and domestic employees. Still another bill reversed a law that caused female teachers in New York to lose their tenure if they took maternity leave.

In 1968, Chisholm decided to run for the U.S. Congress. Although her opponent was the well-known civil rights leader James Farmer, Shirley Chisholm won the election and began a lengthy career in the U.S. House of Representatives.

As a Congresswoman, Chisholm focused her attention on the needs of her constituents, while serving on several House committees: Agriculture, Veterans' Affairs, Rules and Education, and Labor. When she was assigned to the Forestry Committee, Chisholm protested her appointment and said that she wanted to work on committees that dealt with issues that affected her district. Forestry issues had little or no importance to the people she represented in Bedford-Stuyvesant. During the Vietnam War, Chisholm was one of the first, and the most outspoken, to protest the amount of money being spent on defense, while social programs suffered. Chisholm argued that money should not be spent for war while many Americans were hungry, poorly educated, and without adequate housing.

Chisholm was also a staunch supporter of women's rights. Early in her career as a congresswoman, she took a stand on abortion and supported a woman's right to choose. She also spoke against traditional roles for women professionals, arguing that women were capable of entering many other professions. Black women especially, she felt, had been pushed into stereotypical roles, or conventional professions, such as maids and nannies; roles white women no longer wanted. Chisholm supported the idea that Black women needed to escape, not just by governmental aid, but also by self-effort. Her antiwar and women's liberation views made Chisholm a popular speaker on college campuses in the late 60s and early 70s.

In 1972 Chisholm decided to run for President. In addition to her interest in civil rights, she spoke out about the judicial system in the United States, police brutality, prison reform, gun control, drug abuse, among other topics. While Shirley Chisholm did not win the Democratic nomination, she did win an impressive 10 percent of the votes within the party. As a result of her candidacy, Chisholm was voted one of the ten most admired women in the world.

After her unsuccessful presidential campaign, Chisholm continued to serve in the House of Representatives until 1982. As a member of the Black Caucus, she was able to see the growth of black representation in the Congress grow.

In 1982, Shirley Chisholm announced her retirement from Congress.

While continuing her teaching after retiring from public life, Chisholm taught politics and women's studies at Mt. Holyoke College in Massachusetts; she was also the visiting scholar at Spelman College.

In 1987 she retired from teaching altogether.

Chisholm continued to be involved in politics by cofounding the National Political Congress of Black Women in 1984, working on Jesse Jackson's presidential campaigns in 1984 and 1988.

In 1993, President Clinton nominated Chisholm for the position of Ambassador to Jamaica, but Chisholm, because of declining health, turned down the nomination.

She was the nation's first Black congresswoman.

She was the nation's first Black presidential candidate.

She stood up for African Americans.

She stood up for the poor.

She stood up for women.

She fought against war.

She was a teacher.

She was a remarkable woman.

The Funny Papers

Mike Smith, Bill Bramhall, Nick Anderson, Marc Murphy, Adam Zyglis, RJ Matson, Darrin Bell,  Michael de Adder, Drew Sheneman, JD Crowe, Steve Sack, Mike Luckovich, Ed Wexler, Scott Stantis, Deb Milbrath,

A Little Help for Trans People of Color

It’s been a year and then some that COVID-19 has smacked us all in our collective faces; some have lost jobs; or seen their jobs reimagined; some have lost businesses or homes or, worst of all, their lives. But think for a second about the way COVID has affected our trans brothers and sisters, especially our trans brothers and sisters of color who, due to systemic oppression, have long faced issues like underemployment, homelessness, incarceration, medical racism, and on and on …

But the good news is that, while many on the right are attacking our trans brothers and sisters simply for being trans, the Marsha P. Johnson Institute [MPJI ]—named for the LGBTQ+ activist and self-identified drag queen who figured prominently in the Stonewall riots of 1969—an organization dedicated to protecting the human rights of Black trans people, has established a COVID Relief Fund, which provides one-time direct relief payments of $500 to those Black trans or nonbinary identifying people; as of today the organization has awarded $250,000 to 500 people.

Funds will go towards replacing lost income, help with rent, families, groceries, medical bills, and more because, as MPJI notes, nearly 20% of transgender people and 26% of transgender people of color have become unemployed due to COVID-19. Even more staggering: 67% of trans people of color say they worry about not being able to pay their bills due to the pandemic’s impact.

Elle Moxley, founder and executive director of the Marsha P. Johnson Institute:

"We are so proud to be able to offer our own stimulus check, if you will, to Black transgender people from around the country. MPJI is one of the only organizations giving cash assistance directly to the people.”

And to people who deserve it most of all.

Bravo.

Check out the Marsha P. Johnson Institute

Tuesday Thought #1

 

Doctor Suggests 'Colored' People Don't Wash As Much

Just to show that racism isn’t a stupid man’s disease, there’s ER doctor and Ohio state Senator … and a Republican, because, of course … . Steve Huffman. Huffman was recently fired from his position at TeamHealth, a firm that outsources health care providers to medical facilities, after suggesting that “the colored population” don’t wash their hands as well as others.

In 2020. A doctor. Colored population.

The racist Republican lawmaker—and why is he still in office—made that comment during a hearing on whether racism ought to be declared a public health crisis in Ohio, during which he asked Ohio Commission on Minority Health executive director Angela Dawson, a black woman, why there were higher rates of COVID-19 infections among black Americans, and said:

“Could it just be that African Americans—the colored population—do not wash their hands as well as other groups?”

After being fired, and saying some word salad garbage about his question being  asked in an “unintentionally awkward way that was perceived as hurtful” Huffman issued a fuller apology via Facebook:

“At a legislative committee hearing on Tuesday, I used an insensitive and offensive term while asking a question. I had absolutely no malicious intent, but I recognize that my choice of words was unacceptable and hurtful. I apologize, and I make no excuses.”

No malicious intent in suggesting that colored people don’t wash their hands because, well, colored. In 2020.

I think the Ohio Senate needs to ask someone to pack his racism and go.

Bobservations

I’ve said many times that we don’t shop at Walmart but this past weekend we went in to get some ink for the printer at home. And, while inside the store we bought some Boboli pizza crusts because this is the only store in Smallville that sells them. I also needed some Panko bread crumbs because I was making meat loaf—don’t judge, I lurve meat loaf—for dinner, and this is the conversation that went down as we looked for the bread crumbs; I said:

“Nope. Not on this aisle.”

“How about the aisle with the baking things.”

“Nope, not here either.”

“What about the cracker aisle?”

“Honey, we’re in freakin’ Walmart, every aisle is the cracker aisle. I could throw a stick and hit twenty crackers. Look! There goes one now!””

Uh huh.

I’m nothing if not an equal opportunity abuser so here goes …

For those of you who believe the sexual assault allegations against Joe Biden because he’s a Democrat but did not believe the sexual assault allegations against Justice Frat Boy because he’s a Conservative, shut up.

On the other side, those of you who think the woman who made the allegations against Biden should have spoken up sooner but stood by Dr. Blasey-Ford when she came forward after a couple of decades are just as hypocritical.

Just because the accuser is on the other side doesn’t make them right or wrong, and just because the accused is one the other side doesn’t make them innocent or guilty.

That said, holding a woman down and attempting to rape her is does not rise to the same level of assault as sniffing her hair and kissing the back of her head.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

Back in 2006, when Pete Buttigieg was 24 years old, more than half of all Americans said they would be “very uncomfortable” or have “reservations” (19 percent) about a gay presidential candidate.

Cut to 2019, when 68% of Americans say they would be either enthusiastic or comfortable (54 percent) with a gay presidential candidate.

Times do change.

The United States is cutting off aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras after _____ blasted those countries for sending migrants to the United States.

So, he’s going to punish three countries because people have left those countries? Won’t that just make the people who stayed there want to leave?

And … if shutting down the border ends the issue of immigrants seeking asylum in this country then why did he shriek about a National Emergency? I mean, keep the border shut, and problem solved, right?

Well, except for that pesky trade business.

Mitch McTurtle wrote an article for Politico entitled Time to Stop the Democrats’ Obstruction.

Seriously. This from a man who obstructed President Barack Obama from filling a Supreme Court seat and over 100 federal court seats.

Fuck off, Mitch.

Okay, so we all know _____ has lied like 9,000+ times since waddling into the Oval office, but even this is a stunning bit of news. This week he said:

“My father is German, was German. Born in a very wonderful place in Germany, so I have a great feeling for Germany.”

Now, while Fred _____ is of German descent, and his father was a German immigrant, Fred ­­­­­_____ was born in New York.

But you know, a lie is just easier. Next up we’ll learn Melanie was born in Dayton.

Oops, I spoke too soon, because he just said that wind turbines cause cancer:

“They say the noise causes cancer.”

To be clear, wind turbines do not cause cancer, though some people blame the noise for causing a variety of other health ailments …claims that have zero scientific validity.

Again, contrary to the Fat Bastard, cancer is not caused by noises of any kind.

This week Chicago elected Lori Lightfoot as its next mayor, defeating Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. Lori Lightfoot is Chicago’s first black female mayor, and its first openly gay mayor, making Chicago the largest city to have elected an openly gay mayor.

And Satya Rhodes-Conway has become the first openly gay and second woman mayor in Madison, Wisconsin’s history.

The march goes on ….

Today’s Hot Slab is Israeli model Ariel Ben-Attar, 23-year-old competitive fitness model and was named Mr. Israel.

I hear he likes long walks on the beach and snuggling.

I’m in …

Another Police Shooting Of A Person Of Color ... In Sixty Seconds

The Daily Kos has a theory that it takes about 60 seconds for police officers to assess a situation before fatally shooting people of color.

Philando Castile was shot 64 seconds after being stopped by Jeronimo Yanez. That was a little long ... children get shot faster.

Seven-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones was shot 9 seconds after police surrounded the house she was in as they attempted to serve an arrest warrant. 

Twelve-year-old Tamir Rice was shot 2 seconds after officers approached him in the park where he was playing with a pellet gun by himself.

So, maybe for kids the Sixty Second Rule doesn’t apply, but for grown people of color ... ?

Last week in Oklahoma City police shot Madgiel Sanchez less than a minute after coming upon him; and Sanchez was deaf.

Sanchez was shot outside his home after police showed up to investigate a hit-and-run. The first officer on the scene pulled out his Taser and ordered Sanchez, who was on his front porch, to drop the two-foot-long pipe he was holding.

His commands didn’t seem to register with Sanchez, who walked off the porch toward the officer, waving the pipe in his right hand, as Sanchez’ daughter yelled:

“Don’t kill him, he’s deaf. Don’t do it!”

Six other neighbors joined in, shouting at the officer, but within sixty seconds another officer arrived and pulled out his handgun; the first officer fired his Taser and the second fired his handgun.

Okay, so was Sanchez coming at the officers and they felt threatened? Well, everyone, including the officers, used the word “amble” to describe his movements—meaning Sanchez was walking at a slow pace; he was not charging at them. And people were shouting that Sanchez was deaf, but the officers tasered him and shot him dead nonetheless.

In his neighborhood, Sanchez was known for walking the streets and was always carrying that pipe to shoo away stray dogs. Neighbors say he even used the pipe “to communicate,” moving it around to try to convey what he meant. They say he was doing that with the officers before he was killed.

Now, some might say this isn’t about race, it’s about a man wielding a pipe, even though he was deaf, and even though was ambling off his porch, and even though one officer tasered him while the other shot him dead.

People will say that police have a difficult job and must assess a situation within seconds but ...

“Black men are 2.8 times as likely to be killed than white people during encounters with police. Hispanic men are 1.7 times more likely to be killed. Black women and girls make up 33% of fatal police shootings of women despite only being 13% of the female population.”

Doesn’t sound right, does it? And if it doesn’t, isn’t it about time to do something about policing?

And wouldn't it be nice if we could get it done in less time than it takes to shoot a person of color in America.

Daily Kos

Two More Black Lives That Apparently Didn't Matter: Terence Crutcher and Tyre King

Terence Crutcher’s car stalled on a highway outside Tulsa, Oklahoma the other night and it cost him his life.

Crutcher, a black man, was killed by Officer Betty Shelby, a white Oklahoma police officer, who responded to a call about the vehicle. Dash camera video shows Crutcher walking toward his SUV with his hands up and a female officer following him. As he nears the driver's side door, three male officers walk up and Crutcher lowers his hands and places them on his car. The officers surround him, making it harder to see what happened next, but then he falls to the ground after being tasered by Officer Tyler Turnbough.

Someone on the police radio says:

"I think he may have just been tasered."

One of the officers near Crutcher backs up slightly and then someone yells:

"Shots fired!"

Crutcher's head drops and he falls to the ground. Then, someone on the police radio says:

"Shots fired. We have one suspect down."

One suspect? Suspect? A Tulsa police helicopter flies overhead capturing the entire scene, and a man’s voice in the video is heard saying that it was "time for a Taser." He then says:

"That looks like a bad dude, too. Probably on something."

Terence Crutcher had no weapon on him, there was no weapon in his car; it’s unclear why Officer Shelby opted to, well, I’ll just say it, murder him, after he’d been tasered by her fellow officer.

Tiffany Crutcher, Terence’s twin, had this to say:

"The big bad dude was my twin brother. That big bad dude was a father," she said. "That big bad dude was a son. That big bad dude was enrolled at Tulsa Community College, just wanting to make us proud. That big bad dude loved God. That big bad dude was at church singing with all of his flaws, every week. That big bad dude, that's who he was."

And therein lies the problem; it seems quite clear that officers on the scene and in the air viewed Crutcher as a “bad dude,” and he may have been; but he was on the ground, he’d been handled, and then he was killed.

A police spokeswoman says Terence Crutcher was not obeying the officers' commands but his hands were up, he was back at his car, he was surrounded by officers, he was tasered.

Then he was dead. And he’s not the only one …

In Columbus, Ohio last week police officers responded to a report of a man saying he was robbed at gunpoint but not injured. When officers arrived, the person who reported the attempted robbery said a group of people — one carrying what appeared to be a gun — demanded money; the officers then saw three people matching the descriptions they had been given and approached them. Two of them ran off, and officers pursued them to an alley where, officers say, “one suspect pulled a gun from his waistband” and Officer Bryan Mason opened fire, hitting the suspect multiple times.

That person was 13-year-old Tyre King; he died a short time later.

Detectives investigating the scene say they found what appeared to be a gun, but “upon further inspection, it turned out to be a BB gun with an attached laser site.

Sadly, this case bears striking resemblance to the case of the police shooting of 12-year0old Tamir Rice two years ago, as he sat in a park holding a toy gun.

So, in light of the shooting deaths of two young black men holding toy guns, I think we need to rethink our gun control laws and make it legal and safe for anyone to hold a gun, real or toy, and openly carry that weapon, as long as they are white. You know, just to be safe.

Now, could Tyre King have been involved in this robbery? Perhaps, though we’ll never know for sure because he’s dead. And say he was robbing that man on the street; robbery is not a capital offense in this country and yet the idea that he’d done it cost him his life. But I can’t shake the idea that officers might not be telling the truth — Columbus officers don’t wear body cameras — when they say Tyre pulled the gun from his waistband — the same thing, later found to be untrue, that was said of Tamir Rice. I mean, he’s being chased by police and cornered in an alley, why pull a toy gun? Why pull a gun at all?

And I get that officers sometimes cannot tell if a gun is a toy or a real weapon, but I also think sometimes officers act, and react, too quickly, especially in the cases of black men and women, and black children.

He was a boy who is now dead and all because someone thought he committed a crime and thought he had a gun and saw him as a threat.

And that is the problem.

RawStory Terence Crutcher
ABC 7 Terence Crutcher
Washington Post Tyre King
The Root Tyre King

The Oklahoma Federation of Republican Women Apologize For Being Racist Liars

Republicans are stupid; they lie; they are, sometimes, racist. Mostly, though, they’re stupid.

Take, for instance the Oklahoma Federation of Republican Women, a “recognized … arm of the Republican Party [which] has a seat on the state executive committee and the state committee" and a membership of over 1300 Republican women, one of whom, Pam Pollard, is their president.

Pollard is apologizing this week for a Facebook post of a Black man hanging from a tree with this message:

"The KKK was formed by the Democrats to keep control over black Americans. The Democrats of today just traded ropes for welfare."

Pollard apologized only after a local TV station called her out on the group’s offensive and racist image, and Pollard, as the GOP is apt to do, also said she had no idea it was posted, and that she regrets it was posted, and that she took it down immediately after it was brought to her attention.

But that’s what the GOP does; they put out these little lies and racist images and then apologize because, well, they had no idea it was racist … I mean, it’s a Black man after being lynched …

But they apparently also had no idea it was a lie? See, that little picture implies that black people are the biggest recipients of welfare and that’s just plain wrong.

According to the NCRM, in 2013, over 40% of food stamp recipients were white, while about 25% were African American, so Pollard and her little band of GOP goosesteppers lied.

That’s what they do, until they’re caught, and then they claim ignorance when in fact they need to claim that they are liars and racists, too.

NCRM

Pam Pollard photo

Let's Talk About Race, Baby... Again ... With, Perhaps, A Little Sexism Thrown In

Out in Parma, Missouri, the town elected a new mayor and shortly after the election results came in, five of the town’s six police officers resigned.

Oh, the new mayor, Tyrus Byrd, is African American … and female.

Byrd, the town’s African American female mayor, was sworn in after she beat incumbent Randall Ramsey. Ramsey had served as mayor of Parma for 37 years under two terms.

Parma says those five police officers resigned citing "safety concerns;" the town’s city attorney, clerk and water treatment supervisor also quit.

Mayor-elect Byrd, said she was unaware of the situation and plans to ask questions about the "safety concerns" during her swearing-in ceremony, though she says her first order of business will be to clean up the city.

I’m guessing losing five asshat police officers who didn’t bother to give her a chance is a good way to start.

As for the townspeople of Parma, they’re okay with the sudden resignations, and happily point out that the town was probably over-staffed with police officers anyway.

“I think it was pretty dirty the way they all quit without giving her a chance, but I don’t think they hurt the town by quitting, because who needs six police for 740 people?” — Parma resident Martha Miller

As for why the police and three other city employees resigned, Mayor Tyrus Byrd is still trying to figure that out because there are no resignation letters to be found  and that the computers were cleared.

It sounds to me like the election of Mayor Byrd is the best thing for Parma, if police quit over an election, and suddenly any evidence of their tenure is erased from memory.

Oh, and good luck to those police officers getting jobs elsewhere; I mean, explain they’re sudden departure on a resume … explain why they quit with no notice …. Explain why no one has their resignation letters.

As I said, it's probably for the better for Parma that these asshats hit the bricks.

sources:

HuffPo

KFVS 12

Raw Story

WSMV

photo sources:

CDA News

St. Louis Sun-Times

A Step Forward ... A Two-Step Forward

While you were out and about yesterday, living your life, doing your thing, did you feel it?

History being made.

Yup, the US Senate made history when it voted to confirm Darrin Gayles to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Gayles, who was confirmed 98-0, is the country’s first openly gay African-American man to be confirmed to the federal bench.

And his confirmation came right after the Senate confirmed Staci Yandle to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, by a vote of 52-44. Yandle is the first African-American lesbian federal judge in over twenty years, just the second one in the history of this country—the first, Judge Deborah Batts, was sworn in during June 1994.

"Never before in the course of the history of our state has there been an Article III federal judge who is openly a member of the LGBT community. In short, Staci Yandle's confirmation marks another important milestone in America's journey toward equality of opportunity."—Senator Dick Durbin

Equality for both the black community and the gay community. All at once, in the same day; twice.

Sidenote: President Obama has already nominated more African-American judges and openly gay and lesbian judges than any of his predecessors.

Of course, that’s not really a surprise, since he is the country’s first African-American president and the first president to fully embrace, and stand up for, the LGBT community.

sources:

The Huffington Post

Lambda Legal