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May 25, 2013

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Tag: Slavery


No. 9 Army Film & Photographic Unit, Titmuss A D (Sergeant)

Japanese Mayor Defends Sex Slavery

It turns out America hasn’t cornered the market on reprehensible politicians. The mayor of Osaka, Japan’s third-largest city, just said the 200,000 female slaves who were forced to have sex with Japanese soldiers during World War II were part of a “necessary” system.

Posted on May 13, 2013 READ MORE


Through a Looking Glass Darkly

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Posted on Mar 20, 2013 READ MORE        


Huckabee Compares Abortion to Holocaust During GOP Event

Delivering the keynote speech at the Celebrate Life forum in Iowa over the weekend, former Arkansas governor and current Fox News host Mike Huckabee claimed that abortion has become “this incredible Holocaust of our own in America.”

Posted on Feb 25, 2013 READ MORE



Mississippi Finally Ratifies 13th Amendment, Thanks to ‘Lincoln’

A doctor inspired by the movie “Lincoln” has spurred Mississippi to become the final state to officially ratify the amendment that abolished slavery in the U.S., 148 years after the fact.

Posted on Feb 18, 2013 READ MORE



AP

There’s Nothing Racist About Gun Control ... Anymore

Just when you thought the debate over gun control couldn’t get any more twisted, the old claim has been revived that slavery might not have lasted so long in America if black people had been granted the right to bear arms at the outset of their arrival in the new world.

Posted on Jan 29, 2013 READ MORE



Illustration by Mr. Fish

White Power to the Rescue

As Southern whites sink into economic and cultural despair, more and more are retreating into a fictional past. They ignore Confederate atrocities in a desperate effort to restore what they view as a lost paradise.

Posted on Jan 28, 2013 READ MORE



Sex Amid the Stacks

The covering over a painting of a slave performing fellatio on a white man has been removed at the Newark Public Library after much controversy; foreign universities are struggling to compete with elite American ones in the online education market; meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal has revealed that the National Counterterrorism Center has been given massive amounts of authority to surveil Americans via datasets. These discoveries and more after the jump.

Posted on Jan 23, 2013 READ MORE



Republicans Angry About Tax Hike, Krugman on the Fiscal Deal, and More

A look at the day’s political happenings, including the House vote on the fiscal cliff deal Tuesday night and President Obama marks the 150th anniversary of one of the most famous presidential proclamations. (UPDATED)

Posted on Jan 1, 2013 READ MORE


Bangladesh

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Posted on Nov 27, 2012 READ MORE



AP/Arkansas Secretary of State, Lori McElroy

How Many Controversial Comments Can Arkansas Republicans Make in One Week?

From defending slavery to advocating for the killing of disobedient children, there’s been a lot of crazy talk by some GOP politicians in the state of Arkansas recently.

Posted on Oct 11, 2012 READ MORE



Romney Closes Gap, ‘SNL’ Mocks Debate, and More

A look at the day’s political happenings, including Mitt Romney makes a major foreign policy speech and a Republican lawmaker defends slavery.

Posted on Oct 8, 2012 READ MORE


Frisking History for Some Insights on Racism

In an urgent and informed discussion on race relations spanning America’s early history to the stop-and-frisk policies of the present, author, historian and New York Public Library research director Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad tells Bill Moyers how the nation’s laws were written to control black Americans.

Posted on Aug 21, 2012 READ MORE



Photo by Les Chatfield (CC-BY)

Perpetuating Modern Day Slavery

Soliciting a modern day slave to write about modern day slaves? Great concept for an improv comedy sketch. Although it might seem sad, and funny, it’s exactly what an advertiser on a media job board has done.

Posted on Aug 1, 2012 READ MORE



Photo by Gage Skidmore

Ron Paul’s Social Security Hypocrisy, Jon Stewart Catches Another Fox News Distortion and More

A look at the day’s political happenings, including a top Obama administration official facing a contempt vote, a new birther conspiracy and “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart takes on Fox News (yet again).

Posted on Jun 20, 2012 READ MORE



Jon Rawlinson (CC-BY)

Not Only Slavery, but AIDS Too

Craig Timberg and Daniel Halperin suggest in their new book, “Tinderbox,” that colonialists’ aggressive trade practices opened new travel routes in central Africa that helped spread a disease rooted in a dense forest to the world beyond.

Posted on Apr 19, 2012 READ MORE  |  2 COMMENTS



Flickr / tinou bao (CC-BY)

Interracial Love Is No Societal Cure-All

Charting the demise of racism by the rising number of interracial marriages is probably not the most reliable indicator that it’s ending. Wouldn’t the elimination of disparities in income, employment, health care, education, crime, punishment and family structure be more accurate indicators?

Posted on Feb 17, 2012 READ MORE  |  12 COMMENTS



White House / Chuck Kennedy

Lincoln’s Lessons for Obama

Can President Obama take advantage of the egalitarian sentiment let loose in the country by the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations? The best response comes not from polls but from history.

Posted on Oct 19, 2011 READ MORE  |  30 COMMENTS



Amazon’s Sweatshop

Amazon’s warehouse has brutal working conditions; women are beginning to take over the workforce; meanwhile, a website and app have been developed to tell you how many slaves are working for you. These discoveries and more after the jump.

Posted on Sep 22, 2011 READ MORE  |  1 COMMENT



Mr. Fish

Ready ... Fire ... Aim!

In his latest self-revelatory essay, our resident genius cartoonist tells a tale of triumph over the oppressive forces of consumerism—or at least the security chief at Barnes & Noble. Call it an origin story, as this incident freed the author to fully become the inimitable Mr. Fish.

Posted on Apr 14, 2011 READ MORE  |  30 COMMENTS        


Let’s Not Spin the Civil War

The Civil War is about to loom very large in the popular memory. We would do well to be candid about its causes and not allow the distortions of contemporary politics or long-standing myths to cloud our understanding of why the nation fell apart.

Posted on Dec 26, 2010 READ MORE  |  33 COMMENTS


Colonialism Still at Heart of Africa’s Problems

What do you call it when a country’s elites exploit its people and resources for profit abroad?

Posted on Dec 15, 2010 READ MORE  |  4 COMMENTS


Old Friends

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Posted on Nov 28, 2010 READ MORE  |  3 COMMENTS        



Flickr / fauxto_digit (CC-BY)

From ‘Sons of Confederate Veterans’ to Children’s Ears

A Virginia fourth-grade textbook falsely claims that “Thousands of Southern blacks fought in the Confederate ranks” during the Civil War. The author of the book relied heavily on a pro-Confederacy group she found on the Internet.

Posted on Oct 20, 2010 READ MORE  |  7 COMMENTS


Unhinged on the Right

To hijack the horrors of the Holocaust and slavery in the service of a political campaign demeans the candidate and, worse, dishonors the victims. Decency demands that some comparisons be off-limits.

Posted on Jun 29, 2010 READ MORE  |  14 COMMENTS



"Scars of a Whipped Slave" / National Archives

The Confederacy Isn’t Something to Be Proud Of

Slavery wasn’t just “a bad thing,” as Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour recently said in dismissing it. Littering is a bad thing. Slavery was this nation’s Original Sin, and the revisionists behind Confederate History Month should be ashamed.

Posted on Apr 12, 2010 READ MORE  |  234 COMMENTS


Robertson

Pat Robertson Blames Quake on Haitians’ Satanic Pact

In this episode of “Pat Robertson Explains It All,” our host takes to the Christian airwaves to help everyone make sense of Tuesday’s gigantic earthquake in Haiti. Needless to say, it’s news to us that the Prince of Darkness had a hand in the matter, but Robertson assures his nodding sidekick that it’s the truth.

Posted on Jan 13, 2010 READ MORE  |  44 COMMENTS


Barack Obama
White House / Pete Souza

A Truth, Crudely Put

Forgive me if I am neither shocked nor outraged at Harry Reid’s comments about Barack Obama’s skin. What I would find stunning is evidence that his assessment was anything but accurate.

Posted on Jan 12, 2010 READ MORE  |  72 COMMENTS


There Are More Slaves Today Than at Any Time in History

One writer spent four years inside the world of modern-day slavery, an industry that produces huge profits and countless wasted lives.

Posted on Aug 25, 2009 READ MORE  |  8 COMMENTS


Jimmy Carter
cartercenter.org

Carter Breaks With Southern Baptists Over Gender Equality Issue

Former President Jimmy Carter has made human rights an ongoing focus of his life’s work, and his position on the issue recently compelled him to sever his ties with the Southern Baptist Convention after being affiliated with it for six decades. Carter, in a recent piece for The Observer, complains that higher-ups in the denomination haven’t changed their sexist ways.

Posted on Jul 20, 2009 READ MORE  |  10 COMMENTS


ENTER_ALT_TEXT
Flickr/Murky1

U.S. Senate Is Sorry About Slavery

On Thursday, the Senate adopted a resolution that apologizes for the evils of slavery on behalf of the people of the United States, and “acknowledges the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery, and Jim Crow laws.” The resolution does not, however, offer any form of reparation for the descendants of slaves.

Posted on Jun 18, 2009 READ MORE  |  74 COMMENTS



White House / Lawrence Jackson

Obama Sends Rebs a Wreath

President Obama decided not to break with White House custom this Memorial Day and sent a wreath to honor the fallen Confederate soldiers who wanted nothing to do with the Union. But he also started a new and long-overdue tradition by honoring the hundreds of thousands of black Americans who fought against the South.

Posted on May 25, 2009 READ MORE  |  5 COMMENTS



AP photo / Nam Y. Huh

Where’s Rev. Wright When You Need Him?

Israel and the United States will together boycott the United Nations World Conference Against Racism in Geneva. Racism, an endemic feature of Israeli and American society, is not, we have decided, open for international inspection. It’s times like this President Obama would do well to heed the sermons of his former pastor.

Posted on Apr 20, 2009 READ MORE  |  95 COMMENTS


book covers

Brenda Wineapple on Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass

Two recent books show how a man of reason and conservative temperament and a man of passion and radical disposition joined together, even before either knew it, to end slavery.

Posted on Jan 23, 2009 READ MORE  |  2 COMMENTS


President Obama Can Redeem the White House

The first African-American elected president of the United States recently visited his soon-to-be residence, a house built by slaves. Alice Walker told me: “Even when they were building it, you know, in chains or in desperation and in sadness, they were building it for him.”

Posted on Nov 12, 2008 READ MORE  |  25 COMMENTS


America’s Relay Race

There was symbolism as well as sadness in the passing of Barack Obama’s grandmother. When we’re young, we think change is a 100-yard dash. As we get older we think it’s a marathon. Eventually we see a relay race.

Posted on Nov 6, 2008 READ MORE  |  2 COMMENTS


The Rivalry
L.A. Theatre Works

Lincoln and Douglas Debate Again in ‘The Rivalry’

Just in time for Election Day, actors David Strathairn and Paul Giamatti are resurrecting the formidable historical figures of Abraham Lincoln and his rival for the Senate in 1858, Stephen A. Douglas, respectively, in L.A. Theatre Works’ production of “The Rivalry,” Norman Corwin’s play about the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates.

Posted on Nov 1, 2008 READ MORE  |  3 COMMENTS


A Slave’s Daughter Votes for Obama

Amanda Jone’s father encouraged her to vote. That wasn’t always an easy feat in Texas, but she did her best, paying poll taxes to vote for FDR and others. Now the 109-year-old daughter of a former slave has voted for the man who could become the first black president and she says, “I feel good about [it].”

Posted on Oct 30, 2008 READ MORE


Powell Gets Down
guardian.co.uk

Powell Busts a Move

Former Secretary of State and current dance sensation Colin Powell graced the stage of a London hip-hop concert “in celebration of African culture.” The song he sang and danced to? A Nigerian hit about people spending money gleaned from U.S. Internet scam victims.

Posted on Oct 15, 2008 READ MORE  |  14 COMMENTS


Pope Benedict
AP photo / Gerald Herbert

Pope Preaches About America’s Hope and Pain

Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass Thursday in a venue different from his customary surroundings, leading a service at the Washington Nationals baseball stadium on the latest stop of his American tour.

Posted on Apr 17, 2008 READ MORE  |  9 COMMENTS


Credibility Gap

Clothing companies and the consumers who buy their products tend to feign ignorance when it’s revealed that those products are a bargain because they were made by 10-year-old slaves. That’s certainly the case with Gap, which says it was unaware of the sweatshop in New Delhi, India, where children were recently found toiling under deplorable conditions to create clothes bearing the Gap Kids logo.

Posted on Oct 29, 2007 READ MORE  |  16 COMMENTS


Justice for the ‘Comfort Women’

During World War II, the Japanese army enslaved and raped 100,000 to 200,000 young women. By denying this atrocity, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and others have brought shame back to Japan.

Posted on Mar 14, 2007 READ MORE  |  22 COMMENTS


Thurmond and Sharpton
whdh.com

Genealogists Uncover Al Sharpton-Strom Thurmond Connection

The Rev. Al Sharpton is descended from a slave once owned by Strom Thurmond’s family, according to genealogists working on behalf of The New York Daily News. Sharpton called the revelation “probably the most shocking thing in my life.”

Posted on Feb 25, 2007 READ MORE  |  5 COMMENTS


migrant workers
chanad.weblogs.us

This Doesn’t Look Like Dubai

After paying roughly $2,000 each for work in the Persian Gulf, a group of Sri Lankan migrant workers was taken to Iraq, where they survived a month of imprisonment until they managed to contact the U.N. The International Organization of Migration says worsening conditions in Iraq have encouraged such abuses by labor recruiters.

Posted on Feb 6, 2007 READ MORE


slave trade
virginia.edu

Virginia House Finally Regrets Slavery

Stopping short of a full-blown apology, Virginia’s House of Delegates voted unanimously on Friday to issue a statement of “profound regret” over the state’s role in the slave trade, “the historic wrongs visited upon native peoples” and “all other forms of discrimination and injustice….”

Posted on Feb 4, 2007 READ MORE  |  11 COMMENTS


Senator Wants to Sic IRS on Pimps

When Republicans push good programs, we like to take notice. This is a great example. GOP Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa wants to establish an office in the IRS that will specifically go after sex traffickers—to get them off the street and free their prey from lives of sexual slavery.

Posted on Jun 30, 2006 READ MORE  |  1 COMMENT


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