IndigenousXca

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In an effort to keep that momentum going with a new Indigenous host each week covering a variety of topics, and due to her diligence in bringing awareness to Indigenous issues, ICTMN’s UK-based correspondent Lisa J. Ellwood (Nanticoke-Lenape) has been invited to host its Canadian version, @IndigenousXca, July 14th – starting at 7pm ET – through July 21st.

[…]

Ellwood’s week as host kicks off with a look at her “Comprehensive Report on MMIW: The Curiously Different Tales of Violence against Indigenous Women On Both Sides of Turtle Island” story.

Follow ICTMN Correspondent Lisa J. Ellwood on Twitter at @IconicImagery and on her week-long account at @IndigenousXca.

Full Story at ICTMN.

Free to Pee at the RNC.

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Less than a week before the convention takes over Quicken Loans Arena, the Cleveland City Council Wednesday unanimously approved an update to the city’s antidiscrimination ordinance that will guarantee transgender people can access facilities that correspond with their gender identity.

The revision — which has been hotly debated for three years — specifically bans discrimination based on gender identity or expression, along with numerous other characteristics, in employment and public accommodations (including restrooms). The change approved Wednesday replaces old language that only referred to “protected classes,” without enumerating what those classes were.

I can’t imagine the repubs are all too happy about this, but it’s a great win. Even so, I think I’d be damn careful about using a public facility at the RNC. The Advocate has the full story.

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In less pleasant RNC news, Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal, and apparently still mighty pissed about being outed, is going to speak. As if people needed yet another reason to hate PayPal.

Gay PayPal cofounder and Facebook board member Peter Thiel is one of the nation’s 300 wealthiest people. He’s also an ardent Donald Trump supporter, so much so that he’s speaking at next week’s Republican National Convention.

Though the convention’s platform is described as the most anti-LGBT in Republican history — with calls for a reversal of marriage equality, restricted bathroom access for trans people, and legalized “conversion” therapy and religious-based discrimination — Thiel was happy to take part in the convention. Thiel will be one of only three openly gay speakers at the event and the first in 16 years, according to The Huffington Post.

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Thiel will be joined at the convention by a calvalcade of anti-LGBT speakers, including Jerry Falwell Jr., Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, and Florida attorney general Pam Bondi. Click here for the full list of speakers. Former presidential nominee Mitt Romney and former presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush have declined to speak at the event.

Full story at The Advocate.

God’s Not Dead, but Unwelcome at RNC.

A short while back, I posted about the FFRF billboard going up at the RNC.  The makers of the movie God’s Not Dead 2 wanted to put up an advert too, a rather large one:

What convention attendees won’t see is an even larger sign with a pro-religion message that would have advertised the DVD release of God’s Not Dead 2. That’s because, after two months of back-and-forth with the movie’s distributor, the billboard company, Orange Barrel Media, may have deemed the Christian-sounding messaging needlessly provocative.

The sign, which would have measured 32 feet by 60 feet, would have draped down one side of a large building in downtown Cleveland and was to feature a picture of Melissa Joan Hart, who plays a teacher in trouble for invoking scripture in the classroom. Alongside the image of the actress was the text: “I’d rather stand with God and be judged by the world than stand with the world and be judged by God.”

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That is truly a monster sized ad. It’s even huuuuuuuuuuuge.

Orange Barrel told Pure Flix, the distributor, it didn’t like the “judged by God” message, calling it “too political” and “way too incendiary,” according to emails obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. On another occasion, insiders said the billboard company complained that even the title of the film was considered problematic.

Early on, Orange Barrel cited Republican National Committee rules barring “scandalous” signage, though Pure Flix argued that the RNC would have no problem with their message, especially since former GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is in the movie. In fact, the GOP has partnered with Pure Flix for a worship service the night prior to the start of the convention, followed by a screening of the movie (with food provided by Chick-fil-A).

No word right now on whether or not the ad will eventually find a home at the RNC, but the FFRF has another ad up:

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Via Hollywood Reporter.

Facebook, Oh Facebook, Part II.

JeffersonAnother bigot has been fired for being ranting all over facebook. This time, a nurse, formerly employed at Jefferson Health in Philadelphia.

Thomas Jefferson University Hospital fired a woman who posted on social media how “sick and tired of all this bullsh*t with the black people.”

Diane Amoratis’ Facebook rant, was a response to an anti-police brutality protest near Erie, Pennsylvania that went viral after she posted it.

Her complete rant:

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Well, I’m glad she’s not working at a hospital anymore, but I have no doubt she’ll find another job, and might manage to be smart enough to keep her bigotry off of social media in the future. Unfortunately, that’s no good for everyone else, because that’s some powerful hate and resentment walking around. It’s frightening, thinking of this woman being in charge of vulnerable people.

Via Raw Story.

“You first, motherf*cker.”

Henry Rollins. Credit: Heidi May.

Henry Rollins. Credit: Heidi May.

Henry Rollins latest column tackles the deaths of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, the media, white privilege, and the problem of two Americas. Here’s a bit:

…I’m an educated, Caucasian, heterosexual male. Does this ensure I will have success and live the American Dream? Obviously it doesn’t, but it damn sure drops me on second base with a great opportunity to steal third.

I live solidly in one of the Americas but have been aware of other Americas for decades. For the last week, I have heard politicians use a phrase that nauseates me whenever I hear anyone say it. The need to “come together.” To that I say, “You first, motherfucker.”

Since an upgrade will not occur on a national level via presidential pen stroke or SCOTUS decision, you have to take it upon yourself to be an infinitely fantastic person every single day. There will be times when it will be a bitch to be so awesome, but you’ll handle it. This century will be about incredible individuals. Bold acts of kindness and a genuine desire to at least try to see things from someone else’s perspective are but two of the mandatory requirements for betterment moving forward.

Don’t wait for your government. It’s a broken machine that can only deliver damaged goods. Prejudice coats the mechanics of the USA’s OS. Attempts to clean the parts are attacked as big-government, special-interest meddling. It’s by no means a Gordian knot, but a total system retool is required. It would be incredibly expensive and time-consuming, and the growing pains would be enormous. Not gonna happen.

Equality, tolerance and decency are not inherently American or human traits. They are values you choose to adopt and use or not. So, be amazing all the time.

Not much I can add to that. Be amazing, people.

Full column here.

Love Trumps Hate.

Planting Peace Billboard.

Planting Peace Billboard.

Planting Peace on Thursday erected a billboard right outside the location of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland that depicts Republican primary rivals Donald Trump and Ted Cruz embracing and preparing to kiss. The caption on the billboard reads, “Love Trumps Hate. End Homophobia.”

The billboard is going up just as the Republican platform committee passed what gay Republican groups are calling the most homophobic party platform in the GOP’s history.

Via Planting Peace and Raw Story.

The Complexity of Road Signs.

roadsign1The North Dakota DOT is replacing the old Highway Signs, as pictured on the right. Being that this is happening in ND, it will take half of forever, and the old signs will still be seen for some time, unless people start stealing them all, which might happen. Out in my part of the wilds, the old signs are still all over the place.

I’ve been conflicted about writing this up, it’s a bit more complex than it seems on the surface. It seems that most people feel replacing these signs is erasing Native people, and their presence here in Indian Country; that it’s a mark of disrespect and whitewashing. A lot of people are unaware of the history behind the sign, and who it honours. No, it’s not a generic Indian profile. It’s a specific honour to Red Tomahawk, later known as Marcellus Red Tomahawk. The Red Tomahawk family is a large one here in ND, and as far as I know, they are all good people.

The reason Marcellus Red Tomahawk was chosen to be honoured on the road markers was because white people felt he brought peace to the Plains by executing Sitting Bull. Marcellus Red Tomahawk was not in the least shy about recounting the event, but other peoples’ versions disagree with his account. Almost all of the accounts narrated by people other than Red Tomahawk place Bull Head as shooting first, striking Sitting Bull in the torso, whereupon Red Tomahawk pulled out a pistol and shot Sitting Bull in the head.

At this time, the Ghost Dance was spreading, and the white government and military feared it greatly. I don’t think it would be unfair to say that the white people at the time believed in it more than Natives did. The 7th Cavalry carried out their massacre at Wounded Knee, citing the Ghost Dance as the justification. Sitting Bull did not take part in the Ghost Dance, however, he did not forbid his people from dancing. White authorities feared this meant the Indians would regains strength and continue to fight, rather than settle down into assimilation. The order was given to arrest Sitting Bull. The federal government had started instituting police on reservations, and Marcellus Red Tomahawk was one who joined the police force at Standing Rock rez. He had also embraced Christianity and was devout in that regard. Marcellus Red Tomahawk never disavowed his heritage, but it became terribly twisted by a desire to not only assimilate, but to be an important person among those he sought to be a part of, that of white men. While he himself often stayed dressed in regalia and traditional clothing, photos of his family show his wife and children dressed in the Western white manner. He sent his own children to the Carlisle Indian School:

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One of Red Tomahawk’s sons came home in 1909 and committed suicide. I look upon what happened to Red Tomahawk as a tragedy, a by product of genocide and the demands of assimilation. It makes me feel so sad and wounded. Sitting Bull would never have survived arrest, he would have been murdered anyway, as Crazy Horse was, but it’s a hard thing to face that he died at the hands of his own. Personally, I’m glad the signs are being replaced, because they were never meant to honour Indigenous people at all. They were honour to a murder, an honour to the white way of doing things, a paean to how colonialism works.