With the historic election of Barak Obama propaganda spread throughout the U.S. attempted to reshape the views of people on race relations. Media outlets described a new era of race relations taking hold in the nation, as political pundits often spoke of racism as being dead in America. Racism according to mainstream outlets was something now only held onto by small groups of people whose ideas were lost in time. At the same time these same media outlets presented their message that with a black president racism was now overcome they also continued their racist assaults against other minority groups. It seems as if racism to the mainstream masses only applied to Whites and Blacks, and people of shades of brown, red and yellow were fair game to be ridiculed, stereotyped and exploited. In fact alot of media attention was targeted at making groups of brown people into the new face of racism, while presenting the image of White transcendence. For those of us of brown skin it was easy to see, as this attempt to make us into the uncivilized savages needing White guidance was seen throughout our history. However, what many of our younger gente may have felt disenheartened by, is the number of Anglo-Browns who came up telling us to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps as racism was indeed dead. I say disenheartened as many heard these voices who told them to hate themselves as a life of opression was their own faults, who told them, their fights for equality and justice was playing a victim, who showed them that exploiting your own for cheap labor and political capital was honorable activism. Even many of us bought into the great hope. The idea that bargaining for crumbs would oneday amount to bread became such a norm that we began to give up our history, our culture, our organized efforts at creating change to "fit in" and show that we were just another part of America. This video for me was a reminder of what many of us have forgotten, that being a part of something that is not functioning is not a prize. Unless our belonging is meant to bring about that change that will help not only our people, but change the dynamics for all the world's suffering and opressed, then we are better off as outcasts. This video for the rest of my brothers and sisters, should serve as a nice means to re-examine the question - Is racism dead in America? Peace.
Last Updated ( Monday, 18 January 2010 )
Chicano Movement, circa 1968, subject of series talks in September
Written by Che Bustamante
Sunday, 23 August 2009
SAN JOSE - A series of discussions on the Chicano movement for civil rights and its legacy will kick off Sept. 20 in San Jose.
The first of four panel discussions, "Community Based Organizing in the Movimiento, Then and Now,'' will be held from 6 to 8 p.m., at the Roosevelt Community Center near downtown San Jose. Admission is free.
Participants from the movement will speak about how grass-roots organizers rallied Mexican-Americans to press for quality schooling, bilingual education, affirmative action, better labor conditions and improved policing. Younger activists will talk about extending the movement today to include women's and gay and lesbian rights.
Scheduled panelists include Henry Dominguez, a longtime activist and current member of the Black Berets of San Jose; Adriana Garcia, a local poet and founder of MAIZ (A Spanish acronym for Movement Inspiring Service); Sal Alvarez, a former associate professor of social work at San Jose State University and officer with the national League of United Latin American Citizens; and David Madrid, a youth counselor and member of Silicon Valley De-Bug, a collective of artists and community activists.
Police to change review policy for dash cam videos
Written by Che Bustamante
Sunday, 23 August 2009
Minneapolis — Minneapolis police officials say they will make minor changes to the department's policy on videos recorded from police vehicles. The updates are a response to a videotaped incident in which officers kicked and punched a man who they say resisted before he was arrested. The changes will mean more videos will get reviewed. The Minneapolis police department has cameras in about 60 percent of its vehicles. Cameras are activated automatically when an officer turns on the car's overhead lights. They record video onto equipment that's locked in the trunk. The video of a traffic stop recorded in February shows an officer struggling to wrestle 42-year-old Derryl Jenkins to the ground. Backup units arrive and several of those officers punch and kick Jenkins as they try to handcuff him. Jenkins sustained cuts and bruises and was briefly hospitalized. Police spokesman Sgt. Jesse Garcia said the policy revisions will address situations like this. "We are in the process of changing some things in the fact that if a suspect is hurt during a use of force incident or something similar, that along with the use of force review on the paper copy of the report, the videotape will also be reviewed - if there is one available," Garcia said. Actually, the Jenkins arrest video already met review criteria spelled out in the department's policy manual. Because the event involved use of force, the video was reviewed by a supervisor and a watch commander. Garcia said the policy allows for supervisors to look at any video as a way to monitor how an officer is doing. Police video"The supervisor does reserve the right to look through the tapes to see how the officer's performance is," he said. "If they do see something on there that is questionable they do have the option to forward that complaint on." In the case of the Jenkins tape, the supervisor and watch commander did not use the tape to initiate disciplinary action against the officers. Instead, the tape was kept and used as evidence in assault charges against Jenkins. The County Attorney dropped the charges. And now - at the request of Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan - the video is being reviewed by the FBI. This is one of the reasons why civil rights advocates like attorney Tom Johnson think cameras in squad cars are a good idea. "The Jenkins case is a case in point," Johnson said. "Without cameras in squad cars, we wouldn't be at a point where we could examine whether or not the police conduct was proper." Johnson is the former Hennepin County attorney and also director of the Council on Crime and Justice. In 2001, Johnson was the head of the 50-year-old social justice advocacy group, as they pushed for anti-racial profiling legislation at the state capitol. Derryl JenkinsThat year, legislators passed a measure that paid to install cameras in squad cars. In return, the police departments agreed to tally the race of drivers pulled over in traffic stops. Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek is a former Minneapolis police officer and served in the state legislature. He is also an advocate of cameras in police cars. As a Republican representative in the House, Stanek authored the 2001 racial profiling legislation. He said video helps officers justify charges, because it's an objective collector of evidence. "Prior to the use of in-squad video cameras, sometimes all you had was an officer's account and a citizen's account," Stanek said. "Then you had someone that would mediate or try to arbitrate what exactly happened or didn't happen. A lot of times it was simply based on misperception or miscommunication." But some say the presence of cameras has not made it easier for people with complaints against police officers to get relief. Michelle Gross is a member of Communities United Against Police Brutality. She said getting a police video released takes time, and sometimes the department either loses or erases videos before they can be released. "People need to realize that we pay for that video," Gross said. "These officers don't own this video. The police department doesn't own this video. We own this video. " Minneapolis police Sgt. Jesse Garcia said the tapes are property of the police department. He said video tapes that are not being held as evidence are made public. However, the videos are recycled or erased every 90 days. Those that become evidence are kept indefinitely, or until the case is resolved.
