Letters
Va. African Burial Ground
 |
| An African burial ground in Richmond, Va. is covered by a university parking lot. |
A Call to Action: It’s Time to Reclaim Richmond’s African Burial Ground! The Richmond, Va. community, especially Richmond’s Black community, is facing an immediate and historic challenge: Can we rescue the city’s oldest Black cemetery?
By The Defenders’ Sacred Ground Project
Jul 1, 2008,
10:32
|
Letters
'No' to R. Kelly
 |
| photo-sfgate.com |
Statement and Petition from Black Men Against the Exploitation of Black Women: "This is about more than R. Kelly's claims to innocence. It is about our survival as a community. Until we believe that our daughters, sisters, mothers, wives and friends are worthy of justice, until we believe that rape, domestic violence and the casual sexism that permeates our culture are absolutely unacceptable, until we recognize that the first priority of any community is the protection of its young, we will remain in this tragic dead-end."
Sent by William Jelani Cobb
Jun 18, 2008,
12:36
|
Letters
Pride and Prejudice
Helen Burleson, a 78-year-old Black African American woman in Chicago, has received email and calls from around the world about her letter circulated on the Internet that defends Michelle Obama's statement that this is the first time in her adult life that she has been proud to be an American. Here is Burleson's letter.
Jun 18, 2008,
12:11
|
Letters
The ABC Debate Travesty
If you missed the Democratic presidential debate on ABC Wednesday night, Editor & Publisher called it "perhaps the most embarrassing performance by the media in a major presidential debate in years." Sign a petition here to tell ABC News what you think.
Apr 18, 2008,
10:07
|
Letters
Letter from Assata Shakur
On her 60th birthday, Black Panther fugitive Assata Shakur sends greetings from Cuba, where she has lived for nearly 25 years. She says: "In some ways it was easier for my generation. Racism was blatant and obvious...Not much has changed, but the system of lies and tricknology is much more sophisticated."
Apr 1, 2008,
11:24
|
Letters
FOX Attacks Obama
Reporters like NBC's Tim Russert focused on the "Reverend Wright controversy" only after FOX and other right-wing media did. It happens over and over: FOX airs a right-wing smear and the mass media repeat it. Moveon.org has launched a petition demanding the big networks stop parroting FOX and distracting Americans from real issues.
Mar 21, 2008,
17:04
|
Letters
No to Illegal Surveillance
 |
| credit: tallkleft.com |
Please join the emergency petition to STOP TELECOM IMMUNITY. Check out the video of Americans speaking out against warrantless surveillance and retroactive immunity to the telecommunications companies that may have aided the Bush administration's illegal domestic wiretapping. From People for the American Way
Feb 28, 2008,
17:56
|
Letters
Journalists Seek Support
It has been five long months since African American journalists, Tonye Allen and Ann Brown, hailed that cab last year on October 16, 2006. Blatant victims of racial profiling and police brutality, the couple has struggled since then to share their story, gain public support, and raise funds in their bid for freedom in a foreign land. By Makeda Smith
Mar 23, 2007,
12:45
|
Letters
Boost Mobile’s Dis-Service
Tyechia Thompson of Washington, D.C. finds Boost Mobile’s commercial featuring a woman “with bionic butt cheeks” and voice over by Charlie Murphy degrading to Black women’s intellect and bodies.
Jan 31, 2007,
21:25
|
Letters
Brown, Garland and Campbell
 |
| Ruth Brown |
Given our barren artistic landscape, we can ill afford the absence of these three giants--Ruth Brown, Phyl Garland and Bebe Moore Campbell. Jolynn Hope Brooks writes from Atlanta
Nov 29, 2006,
14:40
|
Letters
Rape, Mythology and Courage
Violence against women of color in the United States is the real issue in the Duke rape case, says Veronica Njeri-Imani. Race, sex, and class undergirds the court case that began being tried in public, on the news and streets of Durham, N.C., not behind closed doors with a robed judge.
Aug 10, 2006,
07:16
|
Letters
California Country Blues
"There has to be an effort made to reconnect African Americans back to rural land. I think the concept of township is so important. We have to learn as Black tourists to rural areas to target our Black dollars. There are so many fledgling African American rural communities scattered nationally. They are in need of economic lifelines," writes Reginald A. Fagan from San Luis Obispo, California.
May 9, 2007,
16:42
|
Letters
Congress Sells Out Internet
Internet providers like AT&T and Verizon are lobbying Congress hard to gut Network Neutrality, the Internet's First Amendment. Net Neutrality prevents AT&T from choosing which websites open most easily for you based on which site pays AT&T more. Amazon.com doesn't have to outbid Barnes & Noble for the right to work more properly on your computer. From MoveOn.org
Jun 16, 2006,
13:32
|
Letters
Seeking Mumia’s Death
The State of Pennsylvania has recently filed its appeal seeking to reinstate the order to execute Mumia. If their appeal is upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell has pledged to sign the third warrant for Mumia's execution. From Fatirah, Philadelphia
Jun 16, 2006,
13:55
|
Letters
One "Wrong Black Body?"
Responding to Mark Anthony Neal's essay on the Duke rape case, Paula Matabane of Atlanta questions the repeated assertion that Claudette Colvin, a pregnant teen-ager who refused to give up her seat in Montgomery Ala. before Rosa Parks, was not supported by civil right leaders because she was the "wrong Black body." Matabane says that Rosa Parks told a different story.
Jun 16, 2006,
13:40
|
Letters
How Whites Elected Nagin
A consensus had developed in the New Orleans Black community that White people were deliberately attempting to take the reins of city government remake New Orleans into a Whiter and more affluent community. This fear was disparaged in the local media as the “so called conspiracy theory,” but one event after another occurred that left little doubt. From Lance Hill, New Orleans
Jun 16, 2006,
14:06
|
Letters
Cultural Genocide On NPR...Billy Collins, NY Poet Laureate – Hello?
On Friday, I received a commentary from St. Louis writer Chris Hayden, author of Vampyre Blues: The Passion of Varnado (Door of Kush 2004). I hope you will support his and my opposition to comments on NPR last week by New York Poet Laureate and former USA Poet Laureate Billy Collins. Collins remarks to host Terry Gross on the “Fresh Air” show, about African American poet Robert Hayden, are frighteningly inaccurate and seem bent on distancing Hayden’s genius from his awareness of the tragedies and triumphs of Black people. Collins states: “He wasn't very popular in the African American community because he did not write about race." From Ruth-Miriam Garnett
May 23, 2006,
10:33
|
