And this is…news?

To anyone? Srsly?

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picture of the headquarters of the Southern Baptist convention.

News Alert
May 22, 4:01 p.m. EDT

Southern Baptist leaders covered up sex abuse, lied to members about secret database, explosive report shows

Leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention released a major third-party investigation that found that sex abuse survivors were often ignored, minimized and “even vilified” by top leaders in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

Read more [@Washington Post]

Why? So we can “learn” that the hierarchy at an ultra- conservative, openly misogynist, church has a hideous history of sexually abusing women and girls (and probably boys and men too) and covering it up for decades?

You guys, it’s so weird! I feel like I could have written this exact story, word for word, without seeing anything more than the headline.

Yeah, I must be psychic or something. ‘CUZ THAT’S THE ONLY EXPLANATION THAT MAKES ANY SENSE AMIRITE.

Emoji: big eyeroll

 

Louisiana to become El Salvador, i.e., hell.

[CONTENT WARNING: child rape, teen suicide, fanatical hostility to bodily autonomy and consent, extreme misogyny, and probably some other shit I could be too triggered to recall.]

Photo of a Salvadoran woman crying in court, flanked by two law enforcement personnel.In In this December 2017 photo, Salvadoran Teodora Vasquez, found guilty of what the court said was an illegal abortion via a miscarriage, arrives in a courtroom to appeal her 30-year prison sentence.
(AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)

Perhaps you have heard about Louisiana’s latest bill classifying all abortions as homicides? Anyone found to help facilitate an abortion, from the person(s) performing it to the involuntary organ donor who wants or needs it will be charged with homicide, with the potential penalty of life in prison. There is no exception for rape, incest, or when fetuses are incompatible with life (e.g. anencephaly).

The bill, HB813, passed out of committee on a 7-2 vote; it now faces the full legislature, and if passed, will land on the desk of Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards. But before you entertain visions of victorious vetoes dancing around in your head, you should know that Governor Edwards has been a hardcore advocate for involuntary organ donation (by other people) as a governor, and previously as a state lawmaker. He has already signed into law one of the most draconian anti-abortion laws in the country, outlawing the procedure upon the detection of a heartbeat, which is about six weeks gestation and before many people know they are pregnant.

[Read more…]

Happy International Women’s Day! Or, not!

Today, March 8, is International Women’s Day. The day was first professed by the Socialist Party of America in 1909, the idea arising from women’s rights movements in industrializing nations around the turn of the last century. Its purpose is to celebrate the achievements of women throughout history, as well as engage in the ongoing struggle for gender equality.

March is also Women’s History Month. <-That is a website curated by the U.S. Library of Congress that showcases women’s battles and triumphs with interesting and informative stories, audio, video and still images.

If you are a dude and still reading this post: here, have a cookie. (I baked them myself.) That’s for seeing the word “women’s” and not immediately deciding to GTFO.

However, if you are a dude blogger, social media influencer, or a Big Willie with a platform of any kind? [Read more…]

It’s Day 26 of Black History Month and We Whites Are All Going to STFU and Listen.

URGENT REMINDER: The fundraiser for reopening the National Black Doll Museum ends February 28. If you are able to donate a few dollars please do, and either way, please share the fundraiser link as widely as you can. Many thanks! ☮️ -Iris.

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Closeup color photo of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson from the chest up, with her right hand raised, and smiling. She is wearing eyeglasses, a dark suit jacket over a cheetah print shirt, a string of white peals, and a gold band (the underside of a ring) is visible on her right middle finger.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson
(image: Kevin Lamarque/AFP/Getty Images)

We are presently witnessing Black history being made, with President Biden’s nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court. Some facts I have learned (from various sources):

[Read more…]

It’s Day 23 of Black History Month and We Whites Are All Going to STFU and Listen.

And learn. And then click. And thus help.

logo, a blue-bordered square with stylized text "COLOF OF CHANGE""I have written many times here about Color of Change, and I have learned so much about what Black people actually need from me by reading their work, and then doing what they ask of me. Today we get to learn and to help Black people by reading, signing, and sharing (if possible), four Color of Change petitions.

But first, I want to share something that we whites (including Yours Truly) clearly need to hear, again and again and again.  [Read more…]

BREAKING: Ahmaud Arbery’s killers found guilty of federal hate crimes, kidnapping charges.

 

 

Wahington Post banner logoBREAKING NEWS

Ahmaud Arbery’s killers found guilty of hate crimes, kidnapping charges after trial focused on racist slurs and comments

The federal trial was the first to focus directly on racism in connection with one of the high-profile killings of Black people that sparked massive racial-justice protests in 2020. Travis and Gregory McMichael and William Bryan were accused of pursuing and confronting Arbery, an unarmed 25-year-old, because he was Black. The McMichaels were also convicted of a weapons offense.
Read more [@WaPo/paywall]

The thing is, regardless of the sentencing yet to come, there can never be justice. Unless Ahmaud Arbery walked through the door with the jury that delivered the verdict, this is a wrong that can never be righted.

Keeping the murdering racists behind bars for life so they don’t ever do anything like this to anyone else, I think, is the closest thing to justice we as a society can hope for. It is the sentence in the state case (for two of them, anyway; one has the possibility of parole). But it still isn’t justice.

photo of face of Ahmaud Arbery, wearing a baseball cap and smiling.

Ahmaud Arbery, 25
1994-2020
(image: still from video via CBS news)

Rest in Power, Mr. Arbery. You will not be forgotten, as long as I live.

 

It’s Day 19 of Black History Month and We Whites Are All Going to STFU and Listen.

[CONTENT NOTE: police abuse resulting in the death of 14-year-old child with no accountability. No violent images in this post.]

Today we will STFU and listen to Deanna Hardy Joseph and Andrew Joseph, Jr., who lost their 14-year-old son to police abuse with no justice or accountability, and the team at Black Lives Matter Global Network who co-signed their letter. Those of us who are able and wish to help can do so in several different ways.

logo: white rectangle with "BLACK LIVES MATTER" in black text above three horizintal yellow lines, which when clicked links to the site blacklivesmatter.com.

[Read more…]

It’s Day 18 of Black History Month and We Whites Are All Going to STFU and Listen.

[CONTENT NOTE: police killings of Black people; no violent images appear in this post, which does contain: an image of a casket and pallbearers at a funeral for police shooting victim Amir Locke; discussion and news reporting on police killings of Black people; some links in the Amir Locke section go to pages which contain graphic and disturbing police body camera footage of his killing and/or still images extracted from it.]

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I have learned something about myself through this Black History Month project (JFC! There I go making it all about me already! #whitefail): it’s that I physically cannot write a blog post every day about every “newsworthy” story I encounter about Black people, whether tragic, triumphant, or very often both. That is why, for the past few days, I included in my posts links and blurbs about stories I did not address.

More than one article regarding police killings of Black people appears in my news feed today. I am posting about all three of them.

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AMIR LOCKE

Photo of face of Amir Locke, smiling very broadly.

Amir Locke, 22
(image: source via techbondhu.com)

[Read more…]